Travels of the NATCC Baton

(Pictures to come)

Official NATCC Baton launch at 08:00 on June 8th, 2004 at Plymouth Rock, Mass.

Monkey 44 (Bill Delorey) accompanied by Camp-A-Lot (Mike Tassineri) launched the NATCC Baton off Plymouth Rock on June 8th, 2004 at 8:00 ET. We traveled north on I-495. Camp-A-Lot dropped off due to prior commitments. The Caravan continued to Boston, New Hampshire and finally arrived at Keanes Lake Campground on Hwy 1 Calais, Me.

JerBear (Jerry Gale) and wife, Paula left Kingston, Nova Scotia at 03:00 EST on June 9th to catch the 05:00 Digby Ferry to St. Jon, New Brunswick, then proceed to Keanes Lake Campground.

Jerry & Paula Gale were then passed the Baton by Bill Delorey and Mike Tassineri. (Lance Camper) This marked the first NATCC Baton exchange. WE all left the next morning after a great Breakfast was prepared by Mike T. We wish a great camping experience to all who participate and hope the NATCC Baton continues to express a unique camaraderie for all truck campers in North America.

Dec 29, 2004: Baton given to Bob MacNeil at Kingston, NS by Jerry Gale. Bob gives the Baton a home for the next 5 months.

May 9th, 2005: Monkey 44 (Bill Delorey) picked up the Baton from Bob MacNeil at Nickerson State Park near Brewster, Mass. (Cape Cod)

June 22,2005: Baton rode to Greenfield State Park in New Hampshire where it was passed to Bill Moody of Montana @ 13:00 hours. Northern Lite Camper.

June 22, 2005: (Bill Moody) Picked up the baton from Bill Delorey and proceeded to Lake Eden, VT. The Baton there for the next 5 days.

June 27th, 2005: Depart lake Eden And arrive at Queensbury, NY. Camped there one night on the Hudson River.

June 28th,2005: Depart NY and arrive at Conneault, OH. Lots of rain and a nice campground near lake Erie.

June 29, 2005: On interstate 90. Across Ohio and arrive in Middlebury, IN at the KOA. Met friends from Montana, Don & Zacker, they deliver campers for Jayco.

June 30,2005: Depart Middlebury after a nice breakfast in Shipshewana.

July 1st, 2005: Spent the night in a Wisconsin Rest Area near Mauston, WI. Then on to South Dakota. After crossing the mighty Mississippi River at Onalaska, WI into Minnesota. Arrived in Mitchell, SD. Visited the Cabelas Store and camped by the Pond. Lots of campers there.

July 2nd, 2005: On the road early and had high winds between Gillette, WY and Buffalo, WY. Arrived in Billings, Montana and camped in a lot near the Flying J.

July 3rd, 2005: Depart Billings and arrive at Hamilton, MT (home) and we spent 2 days cleaning the camper and catching up upon needed chores at the house.

July 6th, 2005: Depart Hamilton and arrive at Chelan, Washington. Camped with friends and picked up the grandson. He likes the camper.

July 7th, 2005: Departed Chelan on the first leg to deliver the Baton in Deary, Idaho. Arrive there @ 20:30. Camped in their yard awaiting the arrival of Budster( Jerry Galang).

July 8th,2005: Jerry’s sister in law says he will arrive this evening around 18:00, so we will stay another night and enjoy visiting our friends here. We have carried the Baton across the country and hope all others that do the same will enjoy the camping & travels as we did. Bill & Sandy Moody.

July 9th, 2005: 12:00: Transfer the Baon to Budster (Jerry Galang). Lance Camper.

July 11th: Passed the Baton to (Xnorp) George Chambers in Spokane, WA. SnowRiver camper.

July 13th, 2005: The Baton left Spokane with Xnorp (George Chambers, and wife Vi). Spent the first night at MaryHill State Park on the mighty Columbia River.

July 14th, 2005: Arrived at LaPine State Park, 20 miles south of Bend, Oregon and handed over the4 Baton to Paul Beddows and his wife, Terry Malakoff (Adventurer camper) at about 16:00. Its very hot here. Also present was Sooty123 (James Amos) who has a Lance. Let the 2005 NW Caravan begin.

The Baton has traveled 5980 Miles or 9624 Kilometers from Plymouth Rock to LaPine, Oregon.

July 15th, 2005: The Baton visited Host campers today in Bend. The first manufacturer it has visited.

July 16th, 2005: We proceeded to Burns RV in Burns for one night.

July 17th, 2005: We arrived in LaGrande & stayed at Rendezvous RV Park.

July 18th, 2005: John Fellman (aviator) showed up in his Northern Lite. We all visited Arctic Fox.

July 19th, 2005: Tom Wells (WellsDesigned) arrived. We took a tour of Eagle Cap & they cooked as a nice BBQ.

July 20th, 2005: Tom Wells & John Fellman left & we drove to Yakima & camped in Alpenlites Parking lot which has hookups. In the afternoon we toured Alpenlite. The weather is still very hot.

July 21st,2006: This morning we drove up to the German themed tourist town of Leavenworth, Wash, where we spend the day wandering around & then proceeded to 8 Mile Forestry Group camp up the icicle river. It’s still sunny.

July 22nd,2006: We woke up to clouds & rain this morning, the first this trip. We packed up & headed north to the Western themed Tourist town of Winthrop, Wash. The sun had re-appeared by the time we got there. The Adair’s from Alaska with their Lance 1030 were waiting fro us at Pine-Near RV Park.

July 23rd,2006: We proceeded west on Hwy 20 through the north Cascades. Although a short trip, this is very scenic so we made lots of stops. We arrived at lower Goodell forestry group camp, which we had considerable trouble locating. Fortunately Paul Tetrault (Tate) was already there & raised us on the radio.

July 24th, 2005: This morning we crossed into Canada. We proceeded to Paul Beddows house where we picked up 2 cars so we could drive around without the campers. We then proceeded to Fort Campground in Fort Langley. Fort Langley is the first settlement in British Columbia.

July 25th, 2005: While other wandered around Ft. Langley, Paul went to his doctor to have the foot parasites he picked up in Nicaragua looked at & then to his dentist to have the crown he broke in Nicaragua replaced. Nicaragua & Paul have a problem. We went to a pub for dinner.

July 26th, 2005: Today we took the 2 cars plus Paul’s son’s car & we took a day long tour of the sights of Vancouver, one of the worlds most beautiful cities. The weather is still sunny & warm. An RCMP officer in a Lance camper (Barry) joined our group for a couple of days in the evening.

July 27th, 2005: This evening some of us drove to the Park & Ride & took the Rapid Transit, called Skytrain (It’s a mixture of elevated guide way & subway) downtown to view the International Fireworks competition, which is an annual event in late July. This year it’s Canada, Sweden & China. We walked the 8-10 blocks from the subway station to the beach. It was a lovely evening & sunset. There was a crowd of over 300,000 people, but Vancouver has miles of beaches surrounding English Bay, so it was not super crowded. They expect over half a million on Saturday, so it was a good night to go. The train going back was packed like sardines. We had the foresight to take a bus to the first station on the line, or we would have waited an hour to get on a train at the station we had gotten off on. Thank god it was air-conditioned. By the time it got out to the suburbs the train had emptied out a lot, & Alice, Gary’s wife got to sit in the drivers seat (the system is automated so there are no drivers). She is now a qualified subway train driver. We got back to camp just after midnight.

July 28th, 2005: We de-camped around noon & proceeded 20 miles to the Adventurer Factory where we had another tour, our first of wood framed campers. After the tour we drove 2 more hours to Lone Duck Group camp at Lightning Lake in Manning Park with one stop at the Hope Slide where a mountain broke away during an earthquake in the late 60’s, burying the valley, a lake, & the highway below, along with a few cars. Still an impressive sight even though it is re-foresting itself. The weather is still hot & sunny.

July 29th, 2005: The only one to catch any fish so far is Gary Gilchrist, who caught 3 rainbow today form the shore. In the evening, Colin from Victoria showed up in his SR and so did Bigf00t (Ron Daskis). We are now back to 8 rigs.

July 30th, 2005: Snowybird showed up today. We also picked up another Bigfoot drop in camper.

Aug 1st, 2005: Woke up to light rain this morning & we headed off for Penticton & Chute Lake. The road up to Chute was steep & rough, but by the time we got there, the sun had returned. Bob Mehrer, president of SnowRiver joined us.

Aug 2nd, 2005: A quiet day at Chute, except for Paul who had to go to Penticton to get a tire fixed.

Aug 3rd, 2005: We visited SnowRiver in the late morning and they cooked us a BBQ. At 3 PM some of us went to tour Okanagan & some went to the beach at Skaha Lake. At Okanagan we ran into Jack & Rob from Torklift & invited them up to Chute Lake. Paul Tate & Jim Amos left us today & headed home.

Aug 4th, 2005: We proceeded to OK RV Park in Westbank, probably the worst RV Park I have ever stayed in. It was expensive ($42), had no pool, no cable & was located next to a Truck fill up place and was noisy & dusty. The weather is very hot. Some of us did some wine tours.

Aug 5th, 2005: We toured Northern Lite this morning, then proceeded up a high windy road along the west side of Okanagan Lake to Fintry Group site. This is a wonderful spot. Weather is still hot.

Aug 6th, 2005: A day of just relaxing & swimming. A German couple in a TC joined us, so did another TC who thought we were the overflow site. 10 TC’s in all, right now. Snowy Bird headed home this morning.

Aug 7th, 2005: Just relaxing. Weather is still hot.

Aug 8th, 2005: We visited Bigfoot this afternoon, then continued on to Gold Panner RV in Cherryville.

Aug 9th : We proceeded to Kokanee Lake Resort on Kootenay Lake.

Aug 10th: We crossed Kootenay Lake on the Ferry & stayed at Crawford Bay. This town seems to be the last refuge of the Hippie generation. We stayed 2 nights..

Aug 12th: Passed the baton back to Gerry gallant who will carry it to Los Angeles