In galaxy far far away, we once helped launch a social network for RVers called RVillage.
It was an ambitious idea pitched to us by Curtis Coleman – imagine being able pull into an RV park, check in on the website and then be able to view the profiles of others parked nearby?
You could connect with other socially minded RVers, invite them to happy hour or organize a group outing.
It sounded spiffy to us and solved a constant problem we ran into on the road – meeting people and keeping up with them.
We signed on to help him make it a reality by running beta test groups, helping shape the goals and getting the initial word out.
After months of hard work, it launched in March 2014.
We had to drop our involvement shortly after launch to focus on building the Mobile Internet Resource Center and pursue our boating dreams. But the site has continued to grow and grow and grow with Curtis’ tenacious commitment to seeing it through.
This past March to celebrate the 5th anniversary, RVillage hosted RVillage Rally 2.0 in Live Oak, Florida at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.
And Curtis invited us attend and speak at the event. The deal was sweetened with learning that Anthony Nalli, producer of our show The RVers, would be in attendance too – and we could do some filming onsite.
And as our bus is still in storage out west, he even offered to put us up in a camping cabin so we could just drive over without worry of rushing our search for our ideal camper van (we purchased the Travato several weeks after this).
We got the boat located to Jacksonville from Sanford, which made it a quick drive over to attend.
It was a fabulous event full of lots of surprises.
Here’s our quick video recap:
The biggest was just how community centric the event is, and how that compared to other RVing rallies we’ve attended over the years.
RVillage was born out of Burning Man philosophy (a huge festival in the middle of the Nevada desert every year), and that spirit is brought into the rally – with the amazing Firebird fire art sculptures by Charlie Smith of Sparseland Studios creating a central social area in the evenings for hanging out, jamming and dancing.
It was a non-stop packed event for us – filming three segments for the TV show, presenting on mobile internet options and catching up with friends.
Anthony also flew his band down from Toronto, and performed. And Curtis brought in the New Christey Minstrels – which he used to tour with in the early 80s.
We definitely had a good time, and recommend checking the event out in the future.
RVillage Spirit of the Road is already scheduled to return to the same location from February 12 – 16, 2020 – and tickets are now available.
Peter & John and Tom & Cait (our co-hosts of The RVers) are already committed to attend representing the cast.
As we have no clue what we’re doing this winter – we don’t make commitments this far out (and for our own sanity, never let events advertise our presence as a draw anymore).
But the event is definitely on our radar too.
Here’s also a new quick video that RVillage just put out that they had professionally done – filmed at the rally. We think it’s beautifully done and captures the intentions of RVillage:
What a happy post! Looks like everything is rolling along better and better.
I enjoy the “post cards” of your travels and adventures. Thank you for sharing.