Official 2017 Ga. Military Vehicle Rally info thread. Oct. 18-22, 2017

[GamaGoatGirl]

At airport waiting for flight! Great seeing everyone again!!

 

[sandcobra164]

Had a great time seeing everyone this year. Just got finished unloading all my junk out of the 5 ton. Welder1 and I made it into Leesburg about 11:30 this morning and last saw PC Trans and Floridianson at exit 99 rolling south. Thanks for convoying with us to two of my Florida friends!!! Hope my 5 ton didn't slow ya'll up too much!

 

[Gunnermac]

Got home with no problems by 1:00 pm. Good rally, saw old friends and missed some who couldn't get there.
Mac

 

[wheelspinner]

Just got home. All safe and sound. Now time to unload all my loot!

 

[SCSG-G4]

Rolled into SC at 12:57, first time ever leaving DT before 1PM. We will do sandwiches and chips/cookies/fruit cup for breakfast again next year on Sunday. Talked to Ferro, who made it home around 3pm. Another great rally in the history books!

 

[Rmtaunton]

Got to camp house safe and sound deuce , jeeps and 5 ton all unloaded , whew


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[simp5782]

Made it in at 430. Was a long drive in. Just think we get to do it all again next year!

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[73m819]

Made it home about 3, thanks everybody.

 

[Squirt-Truck]

Home in time to make that flight to Pittsburgh.......(fun..)

 

[clinto]

I hate that I am missing this one. For several reasons.

Ditto

Me too.

Wow, you guys didn't make it either, eh? Now I don't feel so bad. Maybe next year.

Life threw a curved one stopping us from coming as well .

I'll be honest, I've worked 7 days a week for the last 6 months and I was still a day late to my own rally. If I wasn't obligated to be there, I wouldn't have made it this year.

We talked about this some at the tent and we think it's just that the economy is humming along and people have a lot of work.

I'm sorry I missed a lot of my friends this year, but I know how it is.

Okay, on to the main thing:

​

I want to thank a lot of people here and there's way for me to get everyone, so if you worked, it's not that we don't appreciate it, it's that I can't remember the dozens of people who do the hundreds of things.

I want to thank Memphis Equipment and their wonderful staff and management, who has chosen to support the rally two years in a row. Their support has allowed us to weather some expenses that otherwise, I'm not sure we'd have been able to cover.

I hope that rally attendees understand that the rally makes money two ways: we sell t-shirts and we make a tiny bit of profit at the MKT. As you can imagine, with $3 breakfasts and $4 lunches, it isn't a lot of profit. So the rally has to pay for a lot of stuff with that small profit: our insurance policy, our attorney to look over paperwork like waivers of liability (notice how kids didn't have to have their own waiver this year? ), an accountant, etc. And this year, we are going to have to spend about $800 rebuilding the handwashing stations. When D-town pulled them out of storage, they were all leaking. We installed new pumps but they still leaked. We have them in the rally trailer so I'll bring them home and Deuce Doctor restore them this winter.

And all that money is more than we make, so the sponsorship of companies like Memphis is key to the rally not having to charge attendees. I know Durhamtown has added tons of fees over the years, so we don't want to charge attendees anything more if we don't have to.

So thank you to Memphis and I hope all of the rally attendees will give them a chance to earn their business. I will say this: Memphis has the best prices on deuce brake hoses on eBay, so go give them a chance:

http://memphisequipment.com/

http://stores.ebay.com/MEMPHIS-EQUIPMENT-MECOPARTS

And thank you to our other sponsors, who helped us in multiple ways:
Old Guard Graphics, in beautiful Athens, Georgia, takes our design ideas and finesses them into a shirt that looks great and lasts a long time. They did the 2008 shirts and I still have some of them and I saw several of them this weekend.
Sign Guys in Athens helped us with banners and this allowed us to save some money.
Porterfield Tire in Athens sold us some cheap tires and we were able to raffle them off and that helps to pay for stuff as well.

And, a special thanks to Papabear and the CAMO crew who donated a brand new 39" Smart TV to the rally so we could raffle it off. I am humbled that such decent people help the rally in such selfless ways. You folks are the bomb. And the CAMO crew, from the moment they joined Steel Soldiers have supported the rally in so many ways. Bringing half a dozen vehicles to the rally and always something interesting that no one's seen before, running errands for us so we can stay in the field, etc.

Alright, that being said...........................

It is impossible to say how much I, the rally and the attendees appreciate the work of the volunteers. Recovry4x4 has manned the registration tent for years and refuses to leave his post.

SCSG-G4 brings this absurd amount of equipment so he can cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for 4 days in a field. This is incredibly hard work, it's hot, he's up at 4:45am to be getting the MKT into gear in order to have breakfast ready and while we're hanging out, doing trailrides and watching flamethrowers, SCSG is cleaning the MKT so he can be ready the next morning.

And SCSG brings a group of guys who help him drive trucks, help him set up and help him run it and without them, he couldn't do this and we'd all have to haul a sh..... boatload of food out there and cook it ourselves.

The MKT is an integral part of the Ga Rally experience and we will always thankful to Mike for letting those of us who were never in the service see what an authentic MKT in action was like.

Thank you to the people like Pammy and MicroJeep who help Mike cook. That's a thankless job and it's hard work. You folks are the awesome sauce.

AMGeneral72 has helped get swap meet vendors sent to the right place and the swap meet has always been well organized.

Thanks to all of the people who helped up set up the tents, tables and chairs and mega-mega thanks to the people who helped us break it down. I don't know about you guys, but I'm a lot more ambitious on Wednesday than Sunday and I know by Sunday, I'm dead tired and I just wanna' go home. So it's a big deal that so many people got together and helped us get the handwashing stations, tents broken down and loaded, tables and chairs broken down and loaded and helped Mike get the MKT broken down. We did a lot better this year than last year.

Thank you so much folks.

Thank you to Twright who sets up a coffee stand so that MKT Mike doesn't have to worry about that. Twright donates the proceeds to a good cause and even offers hot chocolate for people who want something different.

Thanks to u/RustyJunk, who helps me do lots of stuff and does a lot of stuff I don't want to do, like announce the raffle ticket winners and such. He designs the t-shirts as well.

And then there are the people like Coffey1, EMD567, SwampDonkey, RMTaunton, Squirt-Truck and others who you can give a task to and trust that the task will be completed competently and quickly. Coffey1 might even complete the task without falling off a truck.

And finally...............................

The rally wishes to thank all of the attendees who drive crazy, 5mpg (if they're lucky) vehicles hundreds and hundreds of miles to our event. Crazy people like Jeepsinker, who at the last minute manage to get a couple days off work and drive a deuce something insane like 800 miles to hang out with us. People who come home from a 10 hour workday for 2 weeks and then turn wrenches to make sure their vehicle is safe and reliable, then drive out to be here and then drive home and go to bed and have to get up to go back to work on Monday.

It is my sincerest hope that people have a good time. I know sometimes it's just impossible to make everyone happy. Maybe the notifications for dinner aren't as clear as people would like or something like that.

But I genuinely hope that all of you enjoy this event enough to come back. I've tried very hard over the years to look at what works and what doesn't and try and do more of the first.

Thank you all for coming. I hope I get to see all of you again next year and I hope you enjoyed the event.

Clint

Also:
A. I have a few shirts left over. They'll get inventoried tomorrow and I'll get a thread up.
B. Pictures and video can be added to the multimedia thread (https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showt...litary-Vehicle-Rally-multimedia-thread-17GMVR) and the rally Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaMilitaryVehicleRally/
C. If you have media that's too large to put here, I have a dropbox link I can send you. PM me.


And................. finally.................................

I want to share something with ya'll that was shared on the rally's Facebook page. It is very moving.

To the person who drove this guy around, you know who you are and I tried to call you earlier and thank you but your number has apparently changed. You got to be a big part of this family's story and that's something not everyone can say.



That's heavy stuff.

I'm very proud to be a historic military vehicle collector today. You guys (driver, Jeep owner) did right by this guy and our hobby today.

 

[tony99561]

Glad you got home safe girl great seeing you.......tell the dog happy graduation!!

 

[pctrans]

Got back safe and uneventful around 1800 hrs. Thanx to all the event staff and to everyone who took "treasures" off my hands.

 

[EMD567]

Made it back to the house at 1345. Just in time to unload the food and clothes in the rain. The rest can wait.............

 

[73m819]

And................. finally.................................

I want to share something with ya'll that was shared on the rally's Facebook page. It is very moving.

To the person who drove this guy around, you know who you are and I tried to call you earlier and thank you but your number has apparently changed. You got to be a big part of this family's story and that's something not everyone can say.

View attachment 705092View attachment 705093

That's heavy stuff.

I'm very proud to be a historic military vehicle collector today. You guys (driver, Jeep owner) did right by this guy and our hobby today.

A little back story on this,

I was talking to Tom about VN, then took him over and showed him Adams m151, his eyes lighted up, I then said "want to go for a ride" Tom said "REALLY" like a 3 year old could go play in a mud hole, he told me that this was the first time in a 151 since VN (50+years ago), so I STOLE Adams 151 then went ridding. He thanked me beyond words, I in turn thanked him for allowing me to be able to make his day, this event is what made ALL the production getting to the rally, the setup hassle, ect. WORTH it.

I feel very humble after reading the FB post, I thank GOD that I was allowed to be part of this event.

 

[Streamline]

I made it home earlier today, from the GA Rally, and then I passed out on the couch!

This year’s GA Rally was great! It was good to see friends and spend time together as a Family! I met some new friends this year, and I was surprised to find out so many of you from the GA Rally follow me on my Facebook page, about my adventures in college, and hopeful new career! I'm very humbled by your compliments, and I very much appreciate, them taking the time to follow my progress in school! You People are an awesome group of humans! :0)

I have created an album in my Google Pictures of all the pictures I took from this year’s rally, I wish I would have had more, but my phone kept dying, to the phone constantly having to search for an internet service or Wi-Fi connection. I’m posting a link to the album below, at end of this message.

On Friday Night there was a Unicorn Sighting, but unfortunately as always, I was unable to post a picture, due to the picture being badly distorted and too fuzzy! Also on Friday night if you didn't know, It got a little HOT! For those that missed the fire ball, don’t worry I have pictures of this in the album, side note, I’m very glad Kenny and his Hooch area did not blow up after all! From where we were standing when we first seen this, I had thought Kenny or the Port O Potties, were gone!

Thanks again; to, Clint, Kenny, Mike, the MKT crew, and to all the other guys and gals, behind the scene that makes this GA Rally possible, and awesome, for us each and every year, and to those that were not able to make this year’s rally, you were missed! Can’t wait till next year!

Link to my Google Album Page below.
You are welcome to share and comment on any of these photos or videos.
Also you can upload your pictures and or videos, from this years GA Rally.
Please only add pictures from this years rally!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JprH1hNhJPip1Zdy1

 

[CUCVLOVER]

Well I made it home about 45 minutes ago. The run home was pretty chill except for some dumb dumbs on the road that can't drive.
It was great seeing everyone again glad I got to hang out with some of y'all again this year. Also a huge thank you to the Mark (squirt truck) for allowing me to be a passenger for a little ride in the m37 and for all the information about the vehicle and advice he had for me in my newly started search for one and also telling me about his mule and 5 ton. Thank you again sit and I look forward to seeing you again next year or sooner and having a good visit.
It was great visiting with you Kenny (recovery4x4) as always. Again had a blast seeing everyone.
I don't think I broke anything in the green machine and it pulled out a couple people. The lifted blazer was fun to watch get stuck in the swamp too.

 

[clinto]

I forgot to say this:

Much, much thanks to our friend Hill (HROT here on SS). As soon as we met Hill, we tricke......... he volunteered to help us with the rally. He helped shoot the convoy before we had a professional and this year, he met us at D-town at almost 8 o'clock at night and he lives in Atlanta so we could drop trucks off at the rally field. He then let us borrow his bobbed deuce and use it get Gunnermac's trailer out to the rally (Mac's trailer had the tents, tables, chairs, etc.).

Without Hill's help, we would have had a real problem.

You see, I told you I'd forget people! I feel really bad.

 

[papabear]

I'll be honest, I've worked 7 days a week for the last 6 months and I was still a day late to my own rally. If I wasn't obligated to be there, I wouldn't have made it this year.

We talked about this some at the tent and we think it's just that the economy is humming along and people have a lot of work.

I'm sorry I missed a lot of my friends this year, but I know how it is.

Okay, on to the main thing:

​

I want to thank a lot of people here and there's way for me to get everyone, so if you worked, it's not that we don't appreciate it, it's that I can't remember the dozens of people who do the hundreds of things.

I want to thank Memphis Equipment and their wonderful staff and management, who has chosen to support the rally two years in a row. Their support has allowed us to weather some expenses that otherwise, I'm not sure we'd have been able to cover.

I hope that rally attendees understand that the rally makes money two ways: we sell t-shirts and we make a tiny bit of profit at the MKT. As you can imagine, with $3 breakfasts and $4 lunches, it isn't a lot of profit. So the rally has to pay for a lot of stuff with that small profit: our insurance policy, our attorney to look over paperwork like waivers of liability (notice how kids didn't have to have their own waiver this year? ), an accountant, etc. And this year, we are going to have to spend about $800 rebuilding the handwashing stations. When D-town pulled them out of storage, they were all leaking. We installed new pumps but they still leaked. We have them in the rally trailer so I'll bring them home and Deuce Doctor restore them this winter.

And all that money is more than we make, so the sponsorship of companies like Memphis is key to the rally not having to charge attendees. I know Durhamtown has added tons of fees over the years, so we don't want to charge attendees anything more if we don't have to.

So thank you to Memphis and I hope all of the rally attendees will give them a chance to earn their business. I will say this: Memphis has the best prices on deuce brake hoses on eBay, so go give them a chance:

http://memphisequipment.com/

http://stores.ebay.com/MEMPHIS-EQUIPMENT-MECOPARTS

And thank you to our other sponsors, who helped us in multiple ways:
Old Guard Graphics, in beautiful Athens, Georgia, takes our design ideas and finesses them into a shirt that looks great and lasts a long time. They did the 2008 shirts and I still have some of them and I saw several of them this weekend.
Sign Guys in Athens helped us with banners and this allowed us to save some money.
Porterfield Tire in Athens sold us some cheap tires and we were able to raffle them off and that helps to pay for stuff as well.

And, a special thanks to Papabear and the CAMO crew who donated a brand new 39" Smart TV to the rally so we could raffle it off. I am humbled that such decent people help the rally in such selfless ways. You folks are the bomb. And the CAMO crew, from the moment they joined Steel Soldiers have supported the rally in so many ways. Bringing half a dozen vehicles to the rally and always something interesting that no one's seen before, running errands for us so we can stay in the field, etc.

Alright, that being said...........................

It is impossible to say how much I, the rally and the attendees appreciate the work of the volunteers. Recovry4x4 has manned the registration tent for years and refuses to leave his post.

SCSG-G4 brings this absurd amount of equipment so he can cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for 4 days in a field. This is incredibly hard work, it's hot, he's up at 4:45am to be getting the MKT into gear in order to have breakfast ready and while we're hanging out, doing trailrides and watching flamethrowers, SCSG is cleaning the MKT so he can be ready the next morning.

And SCSG brings a group of guys who help him drive trucks, help him set up and help him run it and without them, he couldn't do this and we'd all have to haul a sh..... boatload of food out there and cook it ourselves.

The MKT is an integral part of the Ga Rally experience and we will always thankful to Mike for letting those of us who were never in the service see what an authentic MKT in action was like.

Thank you to the people like Pammy and MicroJeep who help Mike cook. That's a thankless job and it's hard work. You folks are the awesome sauce.

AMGeneral72 has helped get swap meet vendors sent to the right place and the swap meet has always been well organized.

Thanks to all of the people who helped up set up the tents, tables and chairs and mega-mega thanks to the people who helped us break it down. I don't know about you guys, but I'm a lot more ambitious on Wednesday than Sunday and I know by Sunday, I'm dead tired and I just wanna' go home. So it's a big deal that so many people got together and helped us get the handwashing stations, tents broken down and loaded, tables and chairs broken down and loaded and helped Mike get the MKT broken down. We did a lot better this year than last year.

Thank you so much folks.

Thank you to Twright who sets up a coffee stand so that MKT Mike doesn't have to worry about that. Twright donates the proceeds to a good cause and even offers hot chocolate for people who want something different.

Thanks to u/RustyJunk, who helps me do lots of stuff and does a lot of stuff I don't want to do, like announce the raffle ticket winners and such. He designs the t-shirts as well.

And then there are the people like Coffey1, EMD567, SwampDonkey, RMTaunton, Squirt-Truck and others who you can give a task to and trust that the task will be completed competently and quickly. Coffey1 might even complete the task without falling off a truck.

And finally...............................

The rally wishes to thank all of the attendees who drive crazy, 5mpg (if they're lucky) vehicles hundreds and hundreds of miles to our event. Crazy people like Jeepsinker, who at the last minute manage to get a couple days off work and drive a deuce something insane like 800 miles to hang out with us. People who come home from a 10 hour workday for 2 weeks and then turn wrenches to make sure their vehicle is safe and reliable, then drive out to be here and then drive home and go to bed and have to get up to go back to work on Monday.

It is my sincerest hope that people have a good time. I know sometimes it's just impossible to make everyone happy. Maybe the notifications for dinner aren't as clear as people would like or something like that.

But I genuinely hope that all of you enjoy this event enough to come back. I've tried very hard over the years to look at what works and what doesn't and try and do more of the first.

Thank you all for coming. I hope I get to see all of you again next year and I hope you enjoyed the event.

Clint

Also:
A. I have a few shirts left over. They'll get inventoried tomorrow and I'll get a thread up.
B. Pictures and video can be added to the multimedia thread (https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showt...litary-Vehicle-Rally-multimedia-thread-17GMVR) and the rally Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaMilitaryVehicleRally/
C. If you have media that's too large to put here, I have a dropbox link I can send you. PM me.


And................. finally.................................

I want to share something with ya'll that was shared on the rally's Facebook page. It is very moving.

To the person who drove this guy around, you know who you are and I tried to call you earlier and thank you but your number has apparently changed. You got to be a big part of this family's story and that's something not everyone can say.

View attachment 705092View attachment 705093

That's heavy stuff.

I'm very proud to be a historic military vehicle collector today. You guys (driver, Jeep owner) did right by this guy and our hobby today.

Several of us had discussed the possibility of making this our last Rally....but that was before we got there. Even MamaBear is up "for at least one more".

It's a shame that such good friends can only get together once a year....or....is that the reason we are all such good friends??

The CAMO Crew was happy to do the little we did to help. In fact, we asked MKT Mike if there was anything we could do to help several times a day and he would just growl at me and say....."Yea...stay the F...outta the way?

The TVs were a God send in a way and we just wanted to pass along what God sent and try to recoup a little of the money I ate trying to help the insurance company. I've gotten several PMs/texts saying how much folks kids like the "special surprise" the folks brought home from the Rally.

I think most of the folks that attend the Rally do whatever they can to make the Rally a success but there are a few that are the backbone. Just to name a few... Clinto, Kenny, MKT Mike, Dave, and just so many others it's impossible to remember/recognize them because so many folks just pop up and perform a critical service as it is needed.

Yep....as Squirttruck always asks....."IS IT TIME YET"?????

 

[microjeep]

Had a great time at the rally this year like papabear I'm sad it's once a year. Thank you guys for making the wife feel welcome she had a great time. I'd like to say thanks to Clinto for all he does to make this happen, Mike for dragging the MKT down, Tony for getting up early to have coffee ready, Kenny for running the RT and everyone else that makes this happen. And a very special thanks to Squirt Truck, Fifty and Dumpster for taking Mia and I on a trail ride that seemed like was just for us. She wanted to go on a trail ride and you guys made it happen

 

[LanceRobson]

Nancy and I had a great time. It took a little getting used to the rally versus the swap meet kind of events we're used to but we liked the atmosphere. Previously we've only been to pure off-road events like Rausch Creek or pure swap meet events like Sussex, Gilbert or Aberdeen. Our thanks go out to all involved.

We got back Monday afternoon after a day and a half visiting family in Augusta and were paced up I-85 and US-52 by the tornado watches and warnings. Luckily we escaped any damage although some nearby were not so lucky.

And I am looking for contact info for Josh, a vendor over by the road who had his bulldog Frank(?) with him. I owe him an electrical connector for the water and ration heater he bought from us. As I expected I found them on a table in the basement and they never got loaded.....

Again, thanks to all involved and we hope to see some of you at the Denton Farm Park event next year. Wheelspinner, when the planning for that gets started keep us in mind and get in touch please. We won't know how to act having a show less than hour and a half from home. We've never had one closer than 4 hours before....


Lance and Nancy