Look at the links in my signature below for all of the pre-planning photos. There's a photo in there with a map and major attractions for anyone that gets to make it that is not from the area.
I'm going there Friday with Ray and Bruce from my unit. We're measuring all three parking lots plus the road so that we can draw up a site map to see how many units we can fit...
I'm sure there will be room for others. We were there last Friday and did a whole bunch of things.
We measured out 39 spots for sure. Possibly as many as 43 but we need to confer with SUNY Maritime on those. That's without going to an overflow lot which also needs to be confirmed with SUNY. We have 36 unit members but are guessing we'll only get 20-25 of them to attend. We also have 10 Associate members that pay our full standard membership rate (I think it's $15 per annum) just so they can hang with us as well. I'm guessing 5 will come from that crowd.
I'll be inquiring about the overflow lot. It's not right next to the fort but pretty close. It's still waterfront but just a tad farther from the road. BUT all of the activities will be up around the fort, inside the fort courtyard, and inside the fort itself for a pretty amazing maritime museum that covers nearly the entire left edge of the fort in that big arial shot on two floors. A few canons are inside and of course you can see the layout where all the canons were which now have nautical displays. The museum is a must see (but not a requirement ). If we sell out the main spaces I don't think folks would be disappointed in the overflow lot.
We'll be planning an indoor 50th Anniversary dinner for Saturday night, but I'm going to shoot for a Friday night reception outdoors in the forts pentagon courtyard.
The whole place is pretty impressive -- mark your calendar and stay tuned! I'm still getting pricing and trying to secure the contract.
Our unit has finally been accounted for and there are just NINE spots left for our 50th Anniversary Celebration at Fort Schuyler. Here is the official Rally Link:
What a wonderful rally! The setting, while spectacular, was only outdone by the great company. Some very cool vintage rigs were on display along with their equally cool vintage tow vehicles. The food, music, games, boats, museum, fort, etc. Terrific! Terrific! Terrific! We hated leaving. Metro-NY really knows how to celebrate a birthday. I especially enjoyed meeting all of the past presidents/officers and seeing a slide show of the great ol days. There was so much more and this post simply doesn't do the rally justice. Thank you for everything!
I second mistral blue's sentiment. You and the folks at the NY Metro Unit put together an amazing weekend. From the overall site selection and the Friday night reception in the pentagon courtyard to the Sat night dinner with Manhattan views - everything was perfect. Good food, good people, and good times.
NY Metro certainly lived up to their motto this weekend - "Not the biggest - but the friendliest" HOW TRUE!
Just let us know when we can sign up for the '08 Ft Schuyler Rally as the Morrison's will be there!
Well it's over and I don't have a list of complaints to address and that's what is most important to me. We probably hit on about 85% of what we'd hoped to accomplish, but with everybody enjoying themselves most didn't notice what didn't happen (or seem to care).
I'll be posting all the pics at Metropolitan New York Unit » Home once they're finished (and update this post then), but here's the teaser for those that didn't make it...
When Leo (of SaveWally.org fame) posted this Rally at AirForums.com back in the Fall of '06 there was never a question of the Morrison's attending this one. After all, this was a chance to visit our old stomping grounds. Back in 1990 Katy and I were living on East 66th Street in Manhattan in a VERY small studio apartment. When we discovered Katy was pregnant with our daughter Sarah who can be seen in the Rally photos, we decided to move to more spacious digs in City Island (also located in the Bronx). This is where we had our 26 foot sloop docked, and at the time, we spent a lot of time on City Island. It was a natural place to move to at that point in our lives and careers. City Island and the Bronx is where our daughter Sarah (now 16) began her life.
For five or so Summers we had sailed past Ft. Schyler on a regular basis before moving the boat up to Bridgeport CT (fairer winds). Now fast forward seventeen years to our new leasure activity - Airstreaming. So this is a bit of a backgrounder on why we were so excited about attending this Rally. It offered us the chance to visit a place where fond memories were created. And more so...a chance to camp in DA BRONX.
On Friday morning Sarah and I hooked up the Airstream and made our way across the George Washington Bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway. Yes...I had two hands on the wheel the entire way. After a short one-hour ride, we arrived at the Rally site at about 1:30 pm. We met the greeting party, we were presented with our parking options. We opted for waterfront parking.
We knew this Rally was going to be dry camping - no water or electric. As suggested, we arrived with a full fresh tank and empty holding tanks. The solar panels on the roof did a less than adequate job of keeping the batteries charged and our electric only fridge humming. This was our first time testing the fridge and solar package together without the luxury of shore power or power from he tow vehicle. It could be the batteries are shot. we'll have to explore that further at some point soon. So I went to Plan B - I broke out the Honda 1000 generator which kept the trailer charged up and provided adiquate electric for the fridge, Internet connection, and TV.
No sooner were we all settled in to our waterfront piece of the parking lot we discovered it was time for Happy Hour. The central meeting place for the weekend was on the strip of grass between the Airstreams and the Long Island Sound. Cool breezes off the water all weekend kept us cool during the day and snuggled under the covers at night. Thankfully there was no need for the air conditioner all weekend. Happy Hour rolled right into the Friday Night welcome reception which took place inside the fort courtyard. What a setting!
The reception featured hor devours consisting of little pizzas, an amazing cheeze platter, pigs-in-a-blanket, and deli and veggie platters. Soft drinks were provided and anything more was BYOB. We all sat at tables positioned around the center flag pole. The event was of course lively with people table hopping all the the reception. As the Sun set the reception came to a close and we moved on the next part of the evening.
Sarah and I were expecting friends who live in the area to spot by for a visit. No sooner did we get back to the trailer from the reception when Pat and Jill and their children rolled in to pay a social visit. We sat with them for the balance of Friday night. They got a good taste of Rally life with NY Metro folks stopping by to chat and say hi all night long. It was great catching up with old and dear friends at such an amazing setting.
Satruday morning rolled around quick - a little too quick for Sarah and I - yup...we missed another Rally breakfast. Seems to be my MO at Rallyies. While Sarah took her time getting ready for the day, I took a bike ride around the Fort and college campus. After the bike ride I made my rounds visitng with Rally goers and handing out brochures for Jersey Shore Haven Airstream Park where we are sharholders and I sit on the Board of Directors. Many of the Airstreamers I handed brochure to have already been to Shore Haven, but I was more surprised by the many who had not heard of Shore Haven and did not know of the many Airstream only Parks located around the country. You can check out my links to them on my Airstream Links page. Anyway, it was fun chatting it up about a place we love so much.
Once Sarah was ready, it was time for us to drive over to City Island to visit her first home, some lunch at the City Island Diner, and shopping for groceries. It was a fun and reminiscent excursion for me - Sarah seemed non plussed by it all - it's hard to impress a 16 year old girl who has no recolection of living there. All I can say is the memories of our life in City Island were fond ones. Twenty-somethings with a new born, commuting by bus and subway to Manhattan, and hanging out nightly in the boat yard. Good times for sure.
After our trip to City island we high-tailed it back to the Rally. By this time our trailer guests for Saturday night had arrived - fellow Watchung Unit members and good friends Geoff and Dee. While Geoff and Dee continue to prepare their '68 Safari for travel on the open road, they have been our overnight guests at a couple of Rally's now. Come on Geoff -- grease those bearing, check your breaks and running lights and get that rig on the road! Needless to say they are Airstreamers, easy company, and we love putting the front goucho to use.
Our group of Watchungers - Geoff and Dee, Hunt and Sue, and me and Sarah, spent part of the afternoon touring the Fort's matirime museum. The museum offered a wonderful presentation our our Nation's martime history with hundreds of ship models and martime euqipment displays. Later in the afternoon Geoff was a big help with my personal afternoon Rally activity - tuning in my new to our Airstream DirecTV dish. Once we figured out where SW was we locked on to DirecTV's satellites and..Houston we have a signal. Not that there was any time to actually watch it - we were at a Rally after all - it was good knowing the new toy worked. It should help keep the kids entertained in Perry later in the month.
Saturday night's Happy Hour - was held away from the water and closer to the Fort wall - remember my mention of those cool breezes? The Saturday Happy Hour was lively and offered a huge spread of delicous hor devours. And Happy Hour rolled right into dinner. Dinner took place in a dining hall situated on the East river side of the Fort (opposite side from where we were camping). The second floor location featured beautiful views of the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges and the Manhatan skyline. Someone pinch me. It was too cool of a spot for dinner and the food was excellent. After the wonderful dinner and as part of the NY Metro Unit's 50th Anniversary celebration, many of the NY Metro past presidents who were in attendence, were introduced, publically thanks for their years of dedicated service to the Unit and WBCCI, and they were presented with placks saying so.
After the introductions the evening rolled into a slide show of photos provided by ???? (please email names to me at dave@dwmorrison.com) from their family's personal photo collection. The slide show featured photos dating back to the 1959 International (Colorado Springs). Wally Byam, the man, was in one photo where it was seen being presented with his birthday cake. This was just after he had arrived back in the States from the Capetown to Cairo Caravan. The slideshow and personal accounts provided by ??? and his daughter were priceless.
Saturday night was capped off with a bonfire out by the water. All gathered around the fire pit and shared in Airstreaming cameradere. It was a fitting end to a wonderful Rally day.
Sunday saw the usual hugs, handshakes, and good-byes to old and new friends. Sarah and I hooked up the trailer and were on the road by 12:30 pm after the obligatory visit to the designated dump station provided by the kind folks at Ft. Schuyler.
The Metro NY Unit's motto is "Not the biggest - but the friendliest". Those folks know how to have a good time and they certainly live up to their motto. Every member of the Metro NY Unit made us new-comers feel incredibly welcome. There was a rumor floating that Ft Schuyler will be on their Rally schedule again in 2008 and they may add a much desired day. All I can say...and I hope this sums up the good time we had...Leo, please put the Morrison's on the Rally attendee list as soon as you form it. This Unit Rally is not to be missed! The Metro NY members and the location (in yes...da Bronx) are top notch.
Thanks for the above report, almost like being there but not quite. Sorry we missed such an awesome event as I knew it would be. Glad to hear the location may be used again. I was at my parents house last week and in the guest room is a picture from the Statue of Liberty rally with Julie Rivkind and the Twin Towers in the background. I'm sure your view of the landscape was just as spectacular. Congrat's on palnning and pulling off such a great event.
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WBCCI 24291
New England Unit
Metropolitan NY Unit
I'm running behind on processing photos. I was in Manhattan all day, just got back.
It was so great to meet your Dad! I truly believe he was more excited to be at Fort Schuyler than anyone. His stories are all great -- his enthusiasm for the club is endless!
I checked in with him often to make sure he was having a great time. He wore his old camping jacket with many camping patches on it. He wore his original beret. He brought that Liberty State Park photo with him and donated a number of Metro NY originals to our library.
When I checked in on him at Happy Hour to see if everything was okay he exclaimed, "This is wonderful! Makes me want to go out and buy a Bambi!"
Mom & Dad were the recipients of a club plaque recognizing their efforts to the WBCCI Metro NY Unit for their many years of service and participation.
I think you missed the big one -- but hopefully Mom and Dad will be back next year (I can't imagine them missing it) -- I'm sure Dad's excitement won't be so much as a single drop less!
Hanging out with Alex was one of the weekend highlights. As you know he is quite the raconteur and I was soaking it all in. I really enjoy listening to him tell the old stories.
-Dave
Quote:
Originally Posted by peegreen
Loved the pictures from micsupply - also enjoyed navigating your site.
I've got a fairly decent amount of photos from the rally online now. Thumbnails on the home page. Click whatever one you want to expand it. Use the back button to go back. Close the pic window and you close your browser!
Dave -- stole a couple of photos from your website for inclusion. If I could get any originals you might be willing to share that would be great. You can send up to a 100meg zip file through YouSendIt.com at no charge...
Thanks for the review and thanks for coming! It was great to meet both you and Sarah!
PeaGreen -- if you see anything of interest let me know and I'll send you originals. Talk to Dad yet?
Quick Links
7000+ Airsteam families having fun! 
). If we sell out the main spaces I don't think folks would be disappointed in the overflow lot.
Say no to Lawrence Welk attitudes
