Wednesday, July 5, 2006

The Lazy Daze Golden Caravan

2006
 The Lazy Daze Golden Caravan was held June 24th thru July 1st, 2006. Lazy Daze was started by Paul Newton and a fellow school teacher in 1956 where they built pickup campers and trailers. In 1966 they built their first and also the country’s first class C motorhome. Somewhere along the line the schoolteacher was bought out and Ed Newton, Paul’s brother, joined the organization. Today Ed’s son Steve runs the company.

 We are meeting our friends, Ron and Jane, from Arizona at the caravan. We first met Ron and Jane in July 2004 at the Lazy Daze factory. We were all poking around and crawling over the rigs the day we met. Later we found out we were staying at the same motel so made arrangements to meet for supper at an Olive Garden close by and have been close friends ever since. It was interesting that we both came to the factory thinking about the 24 foot T/K but ended up with the 26 1/2 foot M/B. They were planning to order one later that year and we were thinking about waiting until 2006. It turned out we were back in September to order one and they waited until 2006.

 Leaving Lakeville at 12:25PM on the 23rd we drove as far as Lexington, NE where we stopped at about 11:15PM at a Wall Mart. Saw our first Lazy Daze on the road, just north of Des Moines, it was a 26 ½ teal. The next morning we were on the road by 8:00 and got into Cheyenne about 1:00PM. The first thing we did there was to get the motor home weighed. Ron and Jane got in about 3:00PM. Tomorrow is a day of rest.

 I was up at 5:45 to 58 degrees and clear skies. By 7:15AM Sandy & I were all cleaned up & 1 cup of coffee in us so it was time to get outside and mingle with the folks. Just spent the day relaxing & walking around. That evening we had supper with the Frisch’s. It was very warm and we have no hookups here. A few people ran their generators, but most were polite enough not to.

 

Here are some of the rigs that are here.

 

 

 This morning, 26th, we went to the Union Pacific Roundhouse .This is a roundhouse, turntable and machine shop where they maintain old historic trains. We used to have two round houses in my home town of Staples, MN, when I was growing up. But they were torn down many years ago.

 

 

The next few days were spent going to seminars and visiting with friends.

 It’s June 29th and time for us to leave. After saying goodbye to our friends we hit the road for home via Sandy’s  parents in Aberdeen.We stayed overnight in Murdo, SD. It was HOT!!! 100 degrees. Guess what, I forgot the power cord, my excuse is that we didn’t need one in Cheyenne as they did not have hookups. So needless to say we did not sleep well.

We got in to Aberdeen midday and spent a couple days visiting.

 

We left Aberdeen on July 2nd and got home at 4:50PM after 1821.9 miles and 33 hours of driving time.

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy