Rally - Yr 1, Days 305-311

Seiverville, TN

Sorry for the delay.  I was waiting for Mitch to upload all his photos so I could have this blog entry complete.  Finally made it!....

It was certainly a jam-packed week, which flew by very quickly.  RV-Dreams (Linda &  Howard Payne are the founders) is a group we've been following since 2011 (we went to their rally in that year: http://mitcherylrv.blogspot.com/2011/09/after-pa-rally.html).  They put on awesome educational rallies for both wannabees, newbies and experienced full timers (with a lot of really fun events in between).  Although many of the seminars were geared towards the newbies and wannabees, it was  nice for us to be on the other side, offering our advice and stories to them rather than picking everyone else's brains.  It was also a jam-packed week because, as mentioned in a previous post, I had 3 of my 4 steady clients who had demanding deadlines to meet this week.  I did a great job of managing my time by setting up a table with my laptop against the wall and working during the seminars; listening with half an ear and piping in where appropriate, but otherwise "in the zone" working.

Here are the highlights of the week:

Monday, 4/27
Check in was from 3:00 to 5:00.  I volunteered to help out as cashier, so it was a great way to meet everyone in advance.  There were 165 people.  There was a lovely catered dinner.  There was a cool ice-breaker event: a pre-derby race.  Since the Kentucky Derby was this coming weekend, that was going to be the theme.  We had 5 "horses" (us campers wearing a silly plastic jockey hat, riding an inflatable horse on a stick) who jumped to the finished line via a roll of the dice).  The winners would advance in a final race on Saturday night.  When all the activities were over, we returned home and I worked until midnight.

Tuesday, 4/28
Started work at 6:30 am, worked during the seminars and until 5:30, then again after dinner at 8:30.  Didn't learn anything new but provided a good resource to newbies.  Another nice catered dinner but no special activities afterwards.

Wednesday, 4/29
Same work but I took night off.  Went out to Thai Basil with Vance and Marla, who are also Mobile Suites owners and have been full timing for about the same amount of time as we have.  Here is a photo of them.

Thursday, 4/30
After a day of seminars (and work), there was an amazing pot luck dinner, with every kind of dish imaginable, including quite a number of delicious vegetarian choices.  I made my rice & beans dish.

Friday, 5/1
Is it May already???  Where does the time go?  It was only a half day of seminars, as the highlight for most folks was to go ziplining.  I stayed home due to some critical work deadlines, and preparing for Shabbat, but Mitch went and was glad he did:

At the top of the platform, getting instructions

The person ahead of him

The evening was very special.  We met another wonderful Jewish couple (Cheryl and David G).  They are not full timers yet and borrowed a friend's RV to come to the rally.  They are very active in their synagogue and it was really great having them join us for Shabbat dinner, complete with prayer, song and great conversation.

Saturday, 5/2
This was the last day of seminars, although we did not attend.  At night, however, was a great goodbye party with the Kentucky Derby theme, including watching the race.  There was actually a pool but we didn't win anything.  Among the highlights of the party was a derby hat contest (didn't win again, but it was fun).  Here's us in our silly hats:

Our friends Pat and Ron in their hats

Remember the pre-derby race on Monday night?  Here was the final race:

Even the caterer got into the theme:

On Sunday, many people left.  We stayed until Tuesday morning.