June 21, 2103 RV Rally, Gillette, WY

The rally is really cooking. Lots going on. We woke up to thunder and lightening at sunrise this am, then lots of rain. The lot we are in has turned into a quagmire of mud. We are on a high drier island in the middle of it.  Good thing we are not leaving till Monday after it is supposed to dry out some..

Thunderstorms in  the am. I have been  working some more on my latest pine needle masterpiece that has  been on hold while we were in Fort Collins and I worked on glass. This one I am making it looked kind of woven since everyone thinks I am weaving these. It is more like stitched coils. I am working on embellishing the sides now. It has mostly beads in it so far.

The published the aerial photo of the rally today. some 2300 Rv’s and  5000 people are here. We are at the red arrow. More seminars today. I went to the working with photos in Picassa today. It is given by the same people who did the blogging class, Geeks on Tour .  I took one of my printed blog books to show the blogging class people and they took my photo holding it to use in future blog classes. Another one on getting the most out of your RV travels. Given by a traveling  journalist, Mike Wengland-who used to work for NBC.

The exhibit and vendor hall. 400+ exhibitors with RV  products.  Didn’t spend too much, already have everything we need. The ice cream social, with birthday hats celebrating the 50th anniversary.

In the nostalgia exhibit I saw these photos of some of the early rally's. Here is the cover of a 1966 FMCA magazine. It says roughing it with all the comforts of home.

Also was this painting. To me it is living the dream, guess we are doing just that! The anniversary cake. Millions of cakes, a long line formed before they opened the doors. Yoou had to go through the cake place to get a seat for the dance. We stood by a couple from Florida who have been traveling for 12 years. They say they are not full timers, but most of the timers, they travel from April till about Thanksgiving. John had 3 pieces of cake.

For cake I sat by Santa. He and his wife are from Greeley. The people across from us were from Alberta, Canada. They go to Yuma for 3 months in the winter. They convinced me the best way to see Alaska is to take a cruise up thru the northwest passage from Seattle, with the car and then drive around Alaska and drive back down through Canada. Sounds good to me. The Black Tie  Blue jeans ball. Some really good dancers. John refused to dance.

Johnny Goodrum was the entertainment. He sang classic country, waltzes, 50’s and 60’s rock  n’ roll, line dances and more. He had recorded back up music. He had a nice voice. He was in a wheel chair.  A couple gussied up, she on a scooter.

I think this gentleman is one of the new officers of the FMCA. I helped another couple take a photo of this last couple with their new camera(didn’t know where the zoom was) It is inspiring to me that people this age can still walk to start with, but also be active and travel in their motorhomes. We may still be traveling then, but I bet John still won’t dance. You may have noticed that we are the young pups in this crowd.

Sunset in the flood across from us. It is still raining. Severe thunderstorms predicted today, hope we don’t get any of the large hail.  A couple of coaches have left already. We are staying till Monday, it is supposed to dry out starting Sunday am. Sunset over the ‘lake’ near us. It is there all the time, not just from the rain, It has frogs that sing at night in it.

More sunset and typical evening at the RV rally.