NC | 2015, Oct. 15-18: Cherokee NC 2015 Rally

[trumpetguy]

This is our first rally. What is expected in the way of a Pot luck dish, and for how many folks should we prepare?


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[SusieinNC]

Pot Luck dishes can be varied in nature. Generally speaking, a pot luck dish should be big enough to share with maybe 10 people or more. That way no one needs to bring more than one dish because all have extra servings in their dish to share with others. Even though it is not planned, most of the time we have a variety of food from each of the food groups and it works out great. Bring your own plate, eating utensils, and drink.

[jamija]

We attended our first rally and had a great time, thank you everyone for allowing us to see your campers. we will be ordering a 17' SD soon.

Janice and Mike Garry

[Kentucky]

Thanks to all who had a part in organizing this. Everyone was so friendly and helpful...we had a great time. It's fun to be with others who appreciate molded fiberglass trailers. Hope to see you again next year, if not sooner. Take care. Craig, Kathy, & Bear
P.s.-Bear had a great time also. Enjoyed all of the attention.

[charlsara]

We enjoyed the rally so much. Thanks to all our old and new friends. We were glad to see all the Snoozies, (Ten I believe), the Ollies , Escapes, Casitas, Scamps and even a Bigfoot and a Love Bug. Safe journeys to Rick and Sherrie and their little ones, Dan, Rita and Zoe, 2Doc, Jim and Roberta ( We hope Jim is OK, missed you at church) , Vince and his better half, the Dutch Oven crew, Susie, Craig, Kathy and Bear, Steve, Jerry and all the others. With people like these. There Is still hope for America. See you all soon. God bless..

Charlie and Sara

[bkay]

Sorry Rosalind and I did not meet you this past week in Cherokee, NC for the Fiberglass Rally. It was an excellent event and we were able to meet many good folks during our stay. We will attend again next year.

This year we were in site 820...

[charlsara]

Yes, it was hard to meet everyone. We had to leave on Saturday. Hope to catch you next time. We plan to be at Green Eggs and Ham in the spring. Perhaps we will see you there.



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[lynne r]

A FYI for the next Cherokee rally host:

The first year for this rally was 2010. The hosts were a local couple who did it for two years. Jean and Kip continued in 2012 and 2013. I volunteered in 2013 for 2014.

That fall (2013) I spoke with the manager, Penny and secured the following arrangements.

The discount of 20% starts after 20 trailers are signed up. The discount includes 4 or 5 days before the 3 day rally and 4 or 5 days after the rally.

The rally has the rec hall on Friday and Saturday night....Thursday was added later. There was no fee mentioned.

There was a cancellation fee of only $10. (It is now $15).

The campground was to bring tables to the rec hall for the pot luck on Saturday night.

Later we requested two bundles of free wood for the community campfire and use of the covered area under the rec hall for a Dutch oven demo.

Last year I spoke with the campground and agreed to be the liaison for 2015 although not the official host of the rally.

The campground staff has been extremely difficult. Penny, the manager, is not too bad but the rest of the staff has been rude and just plain dense. I have been frustrated and angry with almost all of my dealings with them and will not be back to Happy Holiday...at least until someone else takes over the host job.

For the next host, I suggest getting everything in writing! And do hope that someone steps up as it is a lovely setting and everyone always appears to have a wonderful time. Hope this helps!
Lynne

[lynne r]

Forgot to say that the campground posted the dates of 10/14, 15, 16. They said that was when they wanted to do it. Their idea, only.

[Steve Outlaw]

Originally Posted by lynne r

...The campground staff has been extremely difficult. Penny, the manager, is not too bad but the rest of the staff has been rude and just plain dense. I have been frustrated and angry with almost all of my dealings with them and will not be back to Happy Holiday...
Lynne

Thank you, Lynne for expressing my feelings better (and more tactfully) than I would have been willing to do.

I have wanted to attend the fall rally at Cherokee for years, but it was always held on a weekend that I was working. If I had not retired on October 7th, I would have been working this year also. So I was very excited about being able to attend and meet some new folks.

The problems with the staff began with my original phone call to make reservations. The "lady" on the phone kept trying to book us with another group on a different weekend. She finally just laid the phone down and someone else came on the line and took our information. A later phone call to inquire about something was met with the same uncaring attitude. There were problems at check-in, the site was not large enough for our Oliver and the male manager told me that he didn't care if we were happy or not and we could leave as far as he was concerned.

I enjoyed talking to all the rally participants that I met and had no further intervention with the staff.

It is my understanding that the campground is actually owned by the Cherokee Indian Nation and the staff is just hired help. It's very apparent that they do not have a financial dog in that race and are just drawing a paycheck. Also, their customer base is transient and, based on my interaction with the camp manager, if you're not happy, then get out of the way because there's another unsuspecting person waiting right behind you. I spoke with a half dozen other people that felt that they had been treated poorly.

We will not be attending any future rally's that are held at this campground. We love the idea of a fall rally held somewhere in the Smokey Mountain area but it would be my suggestion that it be held at a place where the owners are appreciative of the money that is spent with them.

Steve and Tali

[Darral T.]

Lynne, while I didnt get to make the rally, I'm really "saddened" by the campground employees!! I did make it over one year for a short visit to see my old friend "Kip" and some others. Very nice place.

We just finished up our Rally (LBL Piney) the first weekend in Oct. This is held at the Piney Campground which is a "Federal" ran campground. These folks could NOT have been nicer. They even sent some rangers (and they've done this many times) to give demonstrations of wild life, etc.!! They've even came around to look at our campers and what have you.

Sorry to hear how HH is rapidly destroying a good rally. Another cg nearby? State ran? Just a thought.

Originally Posted by lynne r

Forgot to say that the campground posted the dates of 10/14, 15, 16. They said that was when they wanted to do it. Their idea, only.

[trumpetguy]

This was our first ever fiberglass rally and we enjoyed the fellowship and camaraderie of so many like minded folks all in one place.
It is a shame that the campground staff are so rude. We actually previewed the sites while returning from Mount Pisgah in August and were taken aback by the sour attitude of the woman at the front desk, and by the "hosts". One of the golf cart drivers actually said my Oliver looked like an Igloo cooler. They were no better after taking our money. I think we were over charged. $40.00 a night will get you into Top Sail in Destin, FL.

We will not be returning to Cherokee...ever.


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[Jack Freed]

Judy and I had no problems with the staff. The person I talked with when I made the reservation was courteous and professional. The same was true when we checked in and paid our balance due. As we left the office, the man on the golf cart was ready immediately to take us to our site. He pointed out all the hookups and answered any questions I had. This was our third rally here, and we never had any of the problems that were mentioned. We really enjoyed the people, the ducks, the music and pot luck.

Jack Freed, Punxsutawney, PA
16' Scamp with the tub.

[George Lauver]

I agree with Jack, this year was our 4th time attending this rally and never have had a problem with staff or service. Heck, they even delivered our pizza to our site. When the campground lost power to our grid on Saturday night they quickly came out and not only restored it, but showed me where the main breaker was if it happened again.

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[HomeCamp]

Rita and I had a great time at The Cherokee Egg Rally. Met so many great folks. Came away with many ideas to improve our snoozy. Thanks to Milissa and Marian (2Doc} for the music and the history lesson on Old Time Appalachian Music. Enjoyed the campfire sing alongs. Rita came away from The Dutch Oven Demonstration with a couple recipes to try on me and I got to sample the cooking. Looking forward to next year.

See Video Attachments:

[thrifty bill]

FWIW, there is an abundant supply of other private campgrounds in the area, particularly if you head over to Maggie Valley. Depending on which direction you are coming from, many would find that towing a trailer to Maggie much easier than Cherokee, close to I-40, no long climb into Cherokee, etc.

We certainly enjoyed our first rally, and we didn't interact with campground management, so no comments on that issue.

The one nitpick I would have on the campground was its Wifi. It was totally useless where we were camping. Staff complained about the heavy use of their Wifi that overwhelmed it. Can only imagine how bad it would have been if the campground was full. To be fair, in my limited experience, a lot of campgrounds have Wifi issues.

The one "public" campground in the area is at Lake Junalaska. It would be too small for the rally. (fewer than 50 sites). I would call this campground semi-public. Its owned and managed by the Lake Junalaska Conference and Retreat Center.

[Sheryl M]

Maybe a 50 camper rally would be a good size. Not too many names to remember. :-)


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[George Lauver]

From some of the recent comments posted, I'll still trying to figure out if some are trying to break up this rally or trying to improve it? Yes it has grown quickly. No not everybody is 100% satisfied, but let's face it no matter where it's located we will probably have the same response. Some will say the dates don't suit them, some won't be happy with this or that. I for one just come to have a good time, enjoy the fall weather, make new friends and rekindle old acquaintances. So how about let's keep a positive attitude and keep this rally growing.

[RoyMarti]

Amen George. We found lots to do in the area, participated in some of the activities(we crash early), had ok interaction with staff (a lot had left for Florida the week before) and met new and old friends. We enjoyed it.

[thrifty bill]

Let me share a few positives about the campground for those that didn't get the opportunity to go to the rally. Our site was quite large (along the back creek). I would definitely look for a site in that area again. Bathrooms were clean and were not crowded. Campground itself had a lot of empty sites, so it looks like they could accommodate many more rally goers. I thought the rate with the discount was reasonable given location and time of year. The campground provided a large meeting room with a lot of tables and chairs for the potluck.

I live in the mountains of western NC. For those that haven't been there, lots of things to see and places to go. These are the reasons I retired here. Cherokee is close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, Smoky Mountain National Park, etc.

The rally itself was very enjoyable, well run, everything went smoothly. Special thanks to the U-Haul crew for having nightly campfires and get togethers!