Our First RV Rally Was Packed — Was It Worth It?

Debi didn’t want to go. I should just say that up front. We’re not crowd people — give us a quiet site, a campfire, and Grizzly stretched out in the grass, and that’s our idea of a good weekend. So when we loaded up for our first Alliance RV National Rally — 375 rigs and 800 people packed into one field in Elkhart — she was quiet most of the drive up.

We didn’t know a single person there. Not face to face, anyway. Five and a half hours from home, pulling into a line of rigs that stretched farther than we could see, both of us thinking the same thing: what did we just get ourselves into?

We Didn’t Know What We Were Walking Into

Here’s the honest part — we almost talked ourselves out of it. A rally isn’t camping. You’re parked close, there’s a packed schedule, there are hundreds of strangers, and we’re the two people who usually find the empty corner of any room.

And then, somewhere in those few days, something shifted. I’m not going to spell it out here — it’s the kind of thing you really have to see — but it had everything to do with the people standing next to us in those food lines, and one moment in particular that neither of us saw coming.

We also had a few things on the rig we’d been putting off. What our dealer quoted to fix one of them, versus what it actually took once we were on-site, is the kind of number that makes you rethink the whole trip. We put the full breakdown in the video.

If you’re on the fence about a rally — any rally — here’s what we set out to answer honestly:

• Whether two people who avoid crowds could actually enjoy 800 of them
• What a dealer wanted to charge for a slide repair, versus what it took at the rally
• The one moment we still haven’t stopped talking about
• And the only question that really matters: would we do it all over again?

You Don’t Have to Own an Alliance to Get This

Here’s what we didn’t realize going in — you don’t need an Alliance to understand what a weekend like this is really about. Rallies happen for every brand, put on by owners and creators all over the country. What we found in Elkhart wasn’t really about the rigs at all. It was a field full of people who light up over the same things we do: the road, the breakdowns, the long hauls, the dog riding shotgun. If you’ve ever felt like the only person you know who’d rather be towing something down a back highway than sitting still — this one’s for you too.

If We Met You at the Rally

And if we crossed paths in Elkhart — thank you. Some of you walked right up and told us you watch the channel, and we weren’t ready for how much that would land. We started this in our driveway in Ohio with no idea anyone would care about our trips or our problems. We’re in northeast Ohio, we camp southeast Ohio most weekends, and if you’re ever rolling through, reach out. We’d love to keep these friendships going.

Watch the Whole Thing

The full story — the nerves, the people, the fix, and our honest verdict — is up now. Grab a coffee and settle in.

If the honest version of RV life is what you’re after — real costs, real problems, real verdicts — subscribe and ride along. And if you want to see what we get into when we leave the Alliance at home, our Texas Road Trip series is a whole different kind of adventure.