I know it has been a while since we've posted, but we're expecting the frequency to pick up now that our last major event for the year is over. For the rest of this year, we will be relaxing and playing and living the full-time RV life we love as we travel to the west.
We just completed our sixteenth RV-Dreams Educational Rally, and it was, once again, amazing. The people were wonderful, the folks at River Plantation RV Resort and Chef's Catering took really good care of us, and we had so much fun educating and entertaining the 175 attendees, almost 70 of which were staying in cabins and hotels. And of course, Butch & Karen at RVs For Less certainly helped us out by bringing RVs to show and by providing nice welcome bags and lots of door prizes.
And certainly we can't forget Dale & Sandy. Sandy helped us out in the Spring Rally, and this time she brought here husband, and our good friend, Dale, to experience the Rally and assist. They certainly made our lives easier. Thank you both very much!
The staff at River Plantation are almost like family, and they always comment about how easy it is to work with us and how wonderful our attendees are to deal with. We're their favorite Rally. But the next two years, we will be having Rallies in the west, so it will be awhile before we return.
Our next educational Rally is our 2018 Spring Educational Rally in Pahrump, Nevada scheduled at Nevada Treasure Resort April 23 - 29. We are going to have a very busy first four months of 2018, and our current plan is to play the rest of the year, so, as of now, we won't be having a Fall Educational Rally in 2018.
For the Rally just completed, we had fantastic weather. We had campfires Saturday and Sunday night before the Rally for the early arrivals, and then check-in and our opening day on Monday went well.
Seminars were well-attended and we threw in some extras. We did a demonstration of our Sea Eagle inflatable boats, Linda taught t-shirt braiding one afternoon, we had hitching and unhitching demonstrations. Linda & I hitched and unhitched our fifth wheel, and other wonderful volunteers demonstrated hitching a towed car to a motorhome and hitching up a travel trailer with a weight distributing hitch.
We had wonderful catered meals, a voluntary Wednesday night campfire, a fantastic Thursday night potluck, gadget & door prize night, our own game show, a showing of the classic movie "The Long, Long, Trailer", our very popular Saturday afternoon "Open Rig Walk-Throughs" and a DJ on our final night to celebrate the end of the Rally with dancing and fun.
In addition, Jimmy Johnson with RV Driving School, provided several driving lessons, and Al & Connie with the Escapees SmartWeigh program weighed over half of our RVs to make sure they weren't overloaded and that tires are properly inflated.
Oh, we've recently gotten verbal commitments to have driving lessons and RV weighing at our 2018 Spring Rally as well. We're looking forward to solidifying those services which we are very passionate about.
It was a wonderful Rally and we expressed our appreciation to all that attended on our Sunday morning departure day.
Post Rally on Sunday night, we had dinner at the Local Goat with three couples that own Augusta Ambition fifth wheels, two of which were at this Rally, and one, Lew & Mary, who attended our Spring Rally (and who we had an amazing day with in August watching the solar eclipse).
On Monday, Rich & Kathie, who attended our 2015 Fall Rally in Michigan were going to stop by around 2:00. Well, they happened to run into Ed & Patrice (aka "Red") who attended our 2016 Spring Rally at their campground. So the four of them came together.
We sat out in the shade and chatted getting caught up on what everyone has been up to. Admittedly, we were a little tired and we may not have been the best of company, but we enjoyed talking to them and sharing in their adventures. They departed with hugs and handshakes, and we went inside to take naps before we were scheduled to go to dinner with Al & Connie from SmartWeigh.
It was a wonderful dinner sitting out on the patio at the Pottery House in Pigeon Forge. Al & Connie are great folks and we're so glad we've gotten to know them this year.
Well, that pretty much wraps up what we've been doing the last couple of weeks. Now, we're really excited to be heading west with plenty of time to just enjoy the journey. It has been an unusual year with too much non-RVing stuff mixed in, and I'm just itching to get back on the road and see new places. However, Linda isn't in any hurry for a big driving day, so our first stop will be in her favorite distance range - 80 miles or less. :)
Until next time.
Two years in the west!! Some of us who hang out there are excited. 😄
Posted by: Tracy Perkins | Thursday, October 05, 2017 at 05:01 PM