Attending the 2024 Forest River Owners Group FROG International Rally
We spent a week at the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds for the Forest River Owners Group, or FROG, annual rally.
Ribbit
Last week, we attended our third Forest River Owners Group (FROG) International rally. This year’s FROG rally was attended by 250-300 Forest River RVs of all brands. In the first couple years of an RVs life, Forest River owners can request warranty work during the rally. The service team, well, the one from Rockwood which is the only one we deal with, is spectacular. They work long hours making sure everyone gets their rigs in tip-top shape.
The rally also includes seminars. Last year and this, we taught seminars on boondocking, safety, and phone apps. There are typically 3-5 seminars going all day long, in one-hour increments with half-hour breaks. Seminars range from “making the best use of your Tupperware” to “how to maintain your Dexter axles” and everything in between.
There are also several off-site tours available. Those usually take a whole day, and without seminar schedule, we’ve never had a chance to take any of the tours.
Breakfasts and several dinners are provided. Most of the food is really delicious, though they have trouble on occasion. There is always plenty, and nobody goes hungry. The desserts and baked good are fantastic!
Vendors have table spaces indoors. A few vendors set up outdoors, on the midway if you will, because their setup is too large to get inside. We always take a few opportunities to walk through the vendor area, to see if there is anything we can’t live without. I usually find something.
Changes
For the past few years, we have heard that Bob, aka FrogBob, and his wife Cindy were ready to retire from their position with FROG as the rally managers. It took them some time and effort. This year a couple was chosen to take the reins from Bob and Cindy. This year the four of them worked together, and next year Bob and Cindy will be retired and the new couple will be in charge. I look forward to seeing how next year goes. I have a few reservations.
While I wonder how events run by the new couple will be, I am glad we weren’t chosen for the position. We did apply. However, there were several reasons we weren’t sure we wanted the job and so it’s not a terrible disappointment that we weren’t chosen. For one thing, Forest River won’t (or maybe can’t) insure anything towed, so we would have had to switch to a motorized RV. That’s not really our cup of tea.
Parking
The past two years that we’ve attended the FROG rally we got in to town on Wednesday, so we could do some factory tours in the area before the really geared up. This year, we did arrive in Goshen on Wednesday. However, we had to pick up the Mini Lite from having a new wall installed, so we didn’t pull into the fairgrounds until Thursday morning.
Where we parked when we arrived early the first year
Parking has always been an — um — interesting experience here. The first year we attended, we were shown to a site that was on the end of a row with shorter sites, so smaller rigs are set in those sites. Perhaps because we were so early, or perhaps by design, we had a great location. Our site was easy to find. That first year, we were testing the Power Package coordinated by Rockwood and ABC Upfitters. The location was great for people to come by and look at the power package in our Mini Lite.
That’s also the day we met Bill, who was volunteering to help with parking. Bill has in the past two years become a great friend and travel companion. If for that reason alone, we appreciate FROG!
We arrived that first year while the parking team was in training. We met Bill, got settled, and went about our business. Even that day, too many people tried to “guide” us at one time. They had VERY specific locations and angles they wanted everyone to park within their designated site. That’s all fine and well, but more than one “guide” is too many and it was very frustrating getting instructions from all over.
The second year went about the same. We knew where we would park, and with too much help, we got in the space.
Those first two years, I recognized that the volunteers were trying too hard, and the leader was pretty grumpy about the whole thing. But, once we were parked we didn’t think any more about it.
Slow Burn
This year, as I said, we didn’t arrive until Thursday morning. As Rockwood ambassadors, we were under the impression that our regular site would be available for us. Unfortunately, that message didn’t get to the parking crew. Our regular site was occupied because “that rig arrived before you did.” This was the second irritant from a parking standpoint. Earlier in the week, we learned that Bill wasn’t welcomed to crew, because they wanted only married couples. That really irked me. Then, our site request was not honored, that irritated me. Is irritated more strongly than irked? I don’t know but I was in a pretty bad mood about the whole thing. That mood festered for a few days. I didn’t care if we ever returned to this rally.
Friends, food, and fun
As more and more of our friends started arriving, and the rally began in earnest, I was pulled out of my funk. We had good times, hung out with friends, toured many of the 2025 Forest River brand models on display, taught seminars, listened to live music, and in general had a good time. We even found a Mini Lite that we like better than the 2205s. Whodathunkit?
We even did a video collaboration with Tony and Tina of TnTRVing. We have the same travel trailer, from a different year, and we recorded tours of each other’s rigs to see how differently each of us has our stuff organized with the rig. That was a lot of fun!
Scott and Vickie returned and set up the tiki lounge. They decorate a pavilion each year, and have a popcorn machine and several yard-style games. There was a jigsaw puzzle. It’s a gathering space, people come and go as they please and bring their own beverages. We shared our 12-volt Bodega cooler so Vickie could make snow cones for the kids. Last year it was a shelter from a terrific rainstorm. Lucky, the weather was better this year!
We recorded a podcast with Mike Sokol, the RV electricity guru, and Ben and Scott from ABC Upfitters about RV electrical safety. We also got to interview a couple of Rockwood decision-makers for an upcoming podcast episode (coming August 29!).
One fun thing about the FROG - some people buy rubber frogs and may or may not attach them to business-card size tags so they can FROG other Forest River RVs. We got FROGged for the first time in June, and again at the rally. I bought a bunch of frog hopping toys, but I felt kid of weird leaving them on people’s rigs. So, I shared them at our seminars and at dinner. We had a lot of fun trying to just to targets.
One of the nights that dinner was not provided, we tried a brewery that Bill had discovered while driving around Goshen We had a good pizza, good beer, and of course a great time with friends.
Bagpiper leads Bob and Cindy to dinner on final night of 2024 FROG rally
On the final night of the rally, a group worked together to honor Bob and Cindy for their years of hard work and welcome the new directors. All too soon, the rally was coming to an end and we were saying our so-longs and packing up for the long, long drive to our next destination.
Oh wait, we only drove 17 miles and are settled for a little while in Shipshewana. I think that’s a story for my next blog post.
