Longtime Vintage Forester Travel Trailer Rally stalwarts helped instill a love of their growing community of campers in others Sept. 13-14 at Crystal Lake Park campgrounds. "This is our seventh year," Darcy Piper of Mason City said.
"We really enjoy this. It's a lot of fun. You make so many good friends.
" She and her husband, Tip, noted that their friend and fellow rally goer, Anita Leonard of Lincoln, Nebraska, parks alongside them at the rally every year. It has been that way since the first Forester Rally they attended. This year, Leonard was unofficially the first arrival, setting up on the Saturday beforehand.
The Pipers arrived on the Sunday before, spending almost a week watching everybody else arrive. They said only Kerby Hanson, son of rally co-founder and organizer Marlen Hanson of Forest City, had a trailer parked on the grounds before Leonard and themselves. "Kerby Hanson's camper was here, but he wasn't, so that doesn't count," joked Tip.
"We always camp right beside Anita, and we even park in the same spots where we have a birdseye view of everything," said Darcy from her camp site with a clean sightline of blacktop and campground traffic. Theirs are some of the first campers everyone sees each year. Additionally, their Mason City neighbors, Rod and Sheila Haag and their dog Snickers, parked their camper on the other side after the Pipers encouraged them to participate.
Tip said they are amateur radio club members who also love camping. The Haags don't have a Fo.