Last Day @ the Rally

Good Sam greeted us at the first show on Wednesday night and waved good-bye tonight.

Today we kicked back...geocached...tasted samples of dishes prepared by various State Chapters...voted on the one we thought was best...tried to win a Wii...didn't...out to dinner with a new RV friend...

The beginning of tonight's entertainment began with the presentation of the State flags by Good Sam State Directors attending this rally.

Sang...danced...and cheered the Highstreet Band out of Boise, ID

Heading home tomorrow...so I'm posting a couple pics of the beautiful mountains we've enjoyed all this week...

"Happy Trails" and beautiful evening sky over our RV.

Best Show...and rain again

Our RV neighbors under the black umbrella

Our generation...stands and removes their hats...for our Flag...and the flags of each of the Armed Services including the Coast Guard...and observed a 'moment of silence' for the POWs and MIAs

Herman's Hermits with Peter Noonan

(Well, I got a fun video, but can't get it to upload. If I figure it out, it will get posted.)

Remember..."Henry the VIII"..."The second verse is the same as the first"...Great show!

"It's hard to kiss the lips at night....

chewed your ass out all day"...Vince Gill

It rained...NO, IT POURED...and we got soaked...but we eventually claimed the priority seats given to us for being Good Sam members for over ten years...

And it was a wonderful show even though, we didn't know one song Vince sang...lol

Today I collected all the free buttons, we could find. And I found another '2012' just in time to get a free t-shirt.

The mama osprey near our parking spot. She's mainly feeding her 3 babies rodents, but yesterday she brought a large fish.

I WON THE CONTEST!

Yahoooooo, I scored more free ballcaps then Norman! Hmmm, Christmas gifts for the kids and g'kids, me thinks...LOL

Let's see...I picked up our priority tickets for the Vince Gill show tomorrow night. We had to be members for over 10 years...I won a handsfree bluetooth set-up (I get to figure this out or sell it...hee-hee)...I have a certain salesperson convinced I'm her bestest friend and going to go on her Fantasy Tour...I was given a geocoin at the geocaching booth...several of the booths were giving away Smarties & I ate them all before lunch (yum-o)...I found Norman's matching number for the game tomorrow (hope he wins something really cool)...and I got all three Good Sam collectibles.

Norman spent the most money...I mean he really spent, but if we figure it out, we'll be spending a whole lot more...maybe.

Before the show tonight Good Sam gaveaway $250 to $500 gas cards to everyone who came from Florida, well, over 2500 miles. Anyone who signs up for the next Rally (in Phoenix) before noon Saturday, who lives there, gets to go for free. And one fellow shouted out that everyone here should get a new RV. Good Sam is making a whole year's payments made on his RV...over $11,000. We got to applaud...lol

The show was Bobby Vinton, who was popular in the 60's. It started off really slow; his voice isn't so good anymore...old. But he turned out to be quite a showman, and we really enjoyed the show. He's written or arranged lots of music and also plays many instruments. I think my favorite part was when he and his daughter did excerpts from Phantom of the Opera. It was marvelous!

His son, Robbie, is in white and daughter, Hannah, on the right.

I'm adding this picture, so you can see the flags on each side of the stage. At most RV things we attend people are from the ol' U.S., but also many Canadians are present.

Tonight, as in other events we've been to, both anthems were sung.

I end tonight with this warning:
BEWARE WHAT MAY APPEAR IN CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS...moo-ha-ha-ha

"And the leaves are brown and the sky is gray..."

"California Dreamin'"...OMG...My hands are sore...I can hardly speak...wish my feet were sore, but we only danced 'our dance', "Only You". We've danced to that song ever since we began dating...never missed the chance.

Tonight's entertainment was Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts out of Portland. We love their music! And we've danced to them a couple times in years past...the Rascals, Bobby Darin, the Beachboys, Diana Ross, Sandy and Danny, Elton and more. They play all the covers (I guess that's what you call them). I tried getting a video, but had to use my phone...forgot the camera...sheesh... So I'll put a link on FB up so any of you can check them out, if you'd care too...I think this show will be better than Vince Gill on Friday night...lol

Well, the rest of the day...

I mentioned the big generators giving all of us in our area 30 amp power. Here's a picture of them and the units attached to the sawhorses, we connect to. About 18 RVs to one generator

This morning we just enjoyed visiting with anyone and everyone, who passed by our RV. Norman will be wearing his sunhat tomorrow, because he's sporting a pretty good sunburn now.

We are also keeping track of the osprey nest on a light pole just across from our RV. Fortunately for us, it is not over our RV, because the RV and pickup closest to the pole is getting pooped on all day long. There are three babies in the nest and mom and dad are out hunting a lot of the day.

Paul Evert RV (Monaco sales) were out drumming up business just before lunch. Here they are peddling free drinks both with and without alcohol in our row

This afternoon we both attended a couple seminars. The first one was presented by Fantasy RV Tours. They were trying to get people signed up for tours to Alaska for next summer. We were there to gather info for our own trip (should we ever make it) and try to win $500 towards one of their trips. We didn't win...lol

The second seminar was about a Rand McNally GPS dedicated to RV travel. It was a real interesting presentation. One of the team was the vice president of geek-dom...lol...He helped put the navigation program all together. And he's been involved in navigation devices since their inception. A great seminar...don't know if we'll buy theirs, but we're interested in something for our coach.

Tomorrow is 'see all the exhibits and gather a ton of free stuff' day...and I'm stopping by to look at a used Country Coach...a shorty but with four slides. I'll try real hard not to drool over it, but just in case I'll have a hanky in my pocket.

Good Sam Rally in Redmond

Our first GS Rally...and we're not the only ones.

 We spent last night in a really nice campground just out of Sisters. It cost us quite a bit compared to what we usually spend for just an overnight. That cost is usually "free" at a Walmart...LOL. BUT we had a wonderful pool and spa, which we enjoyed immensely. It really helped my poison oak, which still covers most of my lower right arm. And they had lovely clean showers!

This morning we left fairly early to check into the fairgrounds here in Redmond only to wait in line with lots of coaches. The folks were individually parking the coaches and trying to keep groups together. It took about an hour before we were finally parked.

We do have 30 amp hookups (paying extra for this, but figuring it gets really hot over here sometimes). The hookups are boxes of 4 hookups attached to a sawhorse and then hooked into powerful generators. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the set-up.

After getting everything settled...awnings out...front windows covered...etc...we got ourselves registered. Boy-oh-boy, there's going to be lots to do. And, unbeknownst to us, we 'early birds' are able to attend seminars tomorrow ahead of everyone else...and Johnny and the Lugnuts will be entertaining tomorrow night. They're a great dance group out of Portland...The entertainment will be wonderful...Herman's Hermits...Bobby Vinton...and Vince Gill.

The awning and sunscreen people have already been around and picked up lots of business. And when we got back to our coach, a note was on the door about service our tow bar. It seems they found problems with it. Everyone's drumming up some business...lol

Since today is really our only free day we could count on, we went around the fairgrounds and picked up the geocaches here. We downloaded most around town, but we'll see if we take the time to get anymore.

It's kickback time now...almost 5pm...we've had our happy hour cocktail...Norman is reading...and here I am doing the blog. Tonight after dinner we'll figure out if or which seminars we'll attend.