Well, this is going to take awhile.
First, all of this is from my perspective and swbradley1 may have more to add later on from his point of view.
If you get left out, please don't take it personal. It's hard to remember everything.
There will be a announcement of some info about next years event, but this thread isn't the place for discussion. This is the multimedia thread for the 2014 event and should be kept to the posting of pics and video of this year's event.
Much thanks to our attendees who spend the money and time to come and visit with us. The Ga Rally grows every year and it's hard to believe in 8 years of it's existence it's always grown. We have people from California, New York, the freakin' Czech Republic, Uraguay, Cuba, Virginia, Ohio, Wyoming and everywhere else. We consider it the highest honor that people choose to spend their vacation with us and we work very diligently to ensure they get the best rally experience on Earth.
The rally volunteers who make the rally what it is. The CO, swbradley1 did a spectacular job and put fires out instantly. patracy as an XO ensured that swb always had relief when he needed to leave or deal with rally business. Recovry4x4 and his registration tent staff made sure that any rally attendee could get or find what they needed. The amount of effort that goes into running the registration tent is phenomenal and if you don't sit there for awhile, there's just no way to grasp how hard it is to register an event of this size.
Amgeneral72 literally worked wonders with the Durhamtown field-it's a weird shape and it combines campers with swap meet vendors. The swap meet was bigger than ever before and in the most challenging field ever and still looked better than it ever has. Amgeneral72 was on site on the Sunday before the rally and this gave him the capability to control the layout from the very beginning.
SCSG-G4 and his MKT volunteers are the hardest working group of the bunch. The amount of effort to set up, operate and close down the MKT and keep hundreds of people fed 3 times a day is literally herculean.
The trail ride leaders keep people entertained and in a safe way. Most attendees don't realize what goes into doing the trail rides. Multiple trips to D-town before the rally to inspect the trails and make the plans of where to take people. Early arrival trips to trim trees so 20K lb. 3 axle trucks can fit.
Thanks to all the people who made the "special operations" things like engine swaps, head gasket jobs and bed swaps work. I swapped a deuce engine-I know how much work it is and doing it in a field is crazy. Pulling it off is crazier and impressive.
Much thanks to the people involved for my new DUKW. It is now my favorite MV.
Much thanks to twright for the awesome coffee service.
Both Durhamtown and multiple people like poppop deserve credit for helping the rally by storing rally gear. I think many attendees just don't realize how much gear it takes to put on an event of this size. The MKT, tables, tents, hand washing stations, signage and banners, label printers, laptops, etc. And the rally has had to depend on borrowed equipment a lot and what we do own, we bought with the minimal MKT profits. By doing this, we've been able to continue to put the rally on for free and not charge attendees.
We appreciate D-town's giving us a dumpster truck for the week, as well as pretty much unlimited use of their skid steer. Makes lifting heavy stuff a lot easier. Porta-potties strategically placed on the property aren't terrible either.
We appreciate D-town's placement of an employee at our HQ tent-it really helped attendees get their spectator and drivers armbands squared away quickly and easily.
Now, for some big announcements:
The Ga Rally is famous for attendance and growth. Everyone seems to take an interest in the vehicle count and I think it's a sense of pride for a lot of attendees. I was concerned this year the rally would shrink a little: It has to at some point, it can't grow forever and the amount of people who dropped out at the last minute made me think this would be the year we'd shrink some.
Last year, we had 109 trucks (powered vehicles) and the year before was 106, so I thought we had plateau'd.
I am proud to report that I currently believe the final vehicle tally was
136. I have to check with swbradley when he gets home (he has the signup and count sheets), but I believe this is correct. As we were leaving, a gentlemen showed up in his 1009 and said he had hoped to catch the rally but missed due to other commitments and would be back next year. I took pics of his 1009 to prove I am not making this up to bump up the count.
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So we, in one year, grew over 20%! This is amazing! We are putting on one of the largest military vehicle rallies in the Country!
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The other big announcement is a date change. In the next 30-45 days, a new date for the 2015 event will be announced. It will be a little later in the year in order to try and avoid the hot temperatures of the last few years. One of the biggest things about the Ga. Rally was the weather-no one was doing a Fall Rally and everything was in the summer and it was just miserable. The Ga. Rally was originally a fall rally but changing weather has made it a summer rally. Check out this chart of recorded weather temps from the last 11 years:
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We simply don't have a choice in this matter: if we want nice weather (and this year was miserable), we have to move.
Please keep in mind that with an event of this size, everything is a compromise and pleasing everyone is impossible.
Here are the only pics I took the entire weekend:
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Once again: Thank you all for coming, thank you to the staff for making it the best rally in the Country and we all sincerely hope that everyone had an awesome time.
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