Patriotism.........love of country!

I just spent 4 1/2 days at an RV rally in Tucson, Arizona. This was out first rally of any sort but this one was for Monaco coach owners and labeled "The First Annual New Frontier" rally. Why the first annual new frontier, because it's the first rally under the new company after going through bankruptcy and a sale of assets. It's seems the company will survive and under the new ownership and new money should be back on top in the near future.

As I said it was our first rally and we learned a lot and met a lot of nice people and all of them with the love of RVing. The rally included catered breakfast each morning and a catered dinner each night along with the festivities of the evening, entertainment, announcements, introductions etc. During the day there were vendors selling their wares and new and improved products to make our RV shine and run better, vendors with gadgets to make living in our RV more pleasant and comfortable. The rally itself was a happening, over 500 RV's and well over 1000 folks all meeting, visiting, renewing old acquaintances and making new ones. To borrow a statement from Country Joe (of Country Joe and the Fish of Woodstock): Like man it's a city dude, we have a city here man............folks getting married, babies being born etc. Well that's what my kids labeled the rally, a bunch of old hippies getting together in their RV's rather than Chevy Vans!

OK, now your wondering what all this has to do with patriotism and love of country well let me tell you. The first night we all gather in the very larger pavilion for dinner, and as I look around I see from every post and pillar in the place flags hanging. I'm looking at two flags hanging from each post throughout the hall, the American flag on one side and a military flag on the opposite side. Yes all branched were represented including the Merchant Marines and Coast Guard and being an Air Force Veteran I wanted to sit near the USAF flag. Yes this was a very large building filled with our countries senior citizens and one hell of a lot of them Veterans and proud of that fact as I was about to see. The president of the Monaco company LLC was the MC and got our attention and we started the evening with The Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag. At this time I couldn't remember the last time I said the Pledge but surely hadn't forgot one word of it, and even got this big lump in my throat and the eyes started to tear up a bit. We no sooner finished the Pledge and he called someone up to lead us in the National Anthem, not just ours but then we had someone lead us in the Canadian Anthem too! We then had another guest go up on stage and lead us in prayer, for the fellowship and the meal we were about to eat. This wasn't just the first nights happening, the Pledge and prayers were said each evening before whatever else was planned took place and it just made me feel damn good and proud to be an American.

This is what I feel our country is losing, my generation has said the Pledge all our lives and grew up with it I can't help but feel if asked the last two generations don't even know the words. We don't need to take God out of country we need to put God, the Pledge and the National Anthem back into our schools and teach our children patriotism, honor, and love of country and what it means. So go ahead and call us a bunch of old hippies gathering in our RV's but don't forget we're veterans, patriots, and not afraid to pray and show respect for our for Fathers and what they intended for our country.