We’re parked at the big rally. As usual there was a good share of SNAFUs and confusion, but not for us this time. Rich C got here and was told he couldn’t get 30-amp power (on a 100-degree day), so he turned around and went back to the commercial campground. That information was bogus, and we told him so. He returned later to register and he’ll park tomorrow, hopefully. You can read his account here.

We got parked pretty quickly, and about 15 minutes after we arrived we had 30-amp power, too. So we got the A/C cranking right away and our trailer is comfortable. We are parked in a grassy field across the street from the fairground’s main buildings: Blue section, Row 8. I’ll have my flags up later this week, when my new flagpole holder arrives in the mail.

I zipped over to the vendor area and got Fantastic Vent and Airstream to schedule us for service. At 2 pm, the Fantastic Vent guys arrived to install our third and final vent in the trailer. We are putting in a Fantastic Vent 6600.

Dave Pierce and Jim Wood work as a team to install these vents, and they really know what they are doing. They had the vent in place in 32 minutes, including a few minutes to chat and wait for us to write a check. It was quick partly because the vent opening was pre-cut and pre-wired by the factory, but still I was impressed. Service fee: $70.

Airstream’s service techs showed up about the same time to check out our hard-to-open door. After a bit of consultation, they took off to get some materials. We failed to link up again because we had to go to registration, but they called and we agreed to meet tomorrow morning.

We’ve been busy saying hi to people and meeting new ones. We’ve already met up with numerous Airstream friends, including Renee and Fred Ettline, Herb and Sidra Spies, Linda Amme (of South Jersey RV), Bill and Beth Kerfoot, Dave Pierce, and several magazine and blog readers who are parked near us.

The Board of Trustees did their business today, but the club name change vote will be done by the delegates on Friday … I’ll report on that.

I noticed a SNAFU when walking around in the 100+ degree furnace this afternoon. A large section of the vintage 30-amp section is without power. Apparently one of the big diesel generators overheated and so everyone in that area, about 40 trailers, is melting in the heat. Nobody knows for sure when they will get power, which has led to more a few grumpy comments over there.

Everywhere this rally goes, the temperature inevitably reaches record-breaking temperatures. Salem set a record at 102 today. As one person noted, the International Rally “curse” continues…