To me it is the annual Winnebago rally. 16,000 coaches park in a field during the hottest month of the year to attend seminars about generators, chases, refrigerators, satellite systems, etc. Can you see where I am going with this?
So I decided to tailor my week to get the most pleasure I can from it.
Day 1 Friday.
Left home in our coach which is always a great pleasure. We spent the night in Clear Lake Iowa as they will not park you at the rally after 5PM. We also needed to take on water. I should have guessed this might be a problem when the campground host told us they had plenty of "soft water" for everyone. Not even lemonade mix could take away the sea water taste. We had to buy bottled water for drinking. That's another whole post about how I rarely will buy water someone else put in an echo unfriendly bottle out of someone else's tap.
It rained all night
Day 2 Saturday
We arrived at the rally grounds around 10 AM. We thought we would have time to set up and enjoy some of the Forest City Puckerbrush Days festivities. When we arrived, we were kept in line until noon waiting for the field to dry up enough to park coaches on it.
Day 3 Sunday
A great day. We went on a bike ride with 43 people. Believe it or not, the group spread out quite nicely as the various levels of bikers found their own paces. Lunch was catered by a deli and there was a ranger talk at Pilot Knob State Park, our ultimate destination. We were advised that there was an alternate route home which involved crossing over a mountain, but on the other side of the mountain was a winery. The guys I was with were not about to miss the winery so over the mountain we rode (walked). The winery was a delight. We rode up to a little family of 3 generations having brunch on the patio overlooking their vineyard. By the time we tasted their wares we had their life stories.
Day 4 Monday
The rally begins. I had planned on attending a quilting class so I bought a new sewing machine for the trip. We made a lovely, functional tote bag and I met some interesting people which is the best part of GNR.
New sewing machine: $150 - Tote bag kit: $35 -Thread: $2 - Spending the day in the only air-conditioned room on the grounds: Priceless. Anyone want to buy a $187 tote bag? It is very large and very beautiful.
Day 5 Tuesday
It rained all night.
I nosed around the vendors of motor home equipment, and a few craft vendors but the only thing I found to spend my money on was the most beautiful coach I have ever seen. Don decided he had better keep me busy.
Day 6 Wednesday
We golfed at Beaver Creek Golf Club. What fun. On the back nine we fed our balls to the creatures living at the bottom of Beaver Creek.
Day 7 Thursday
It rained all night and into the morning.
Forest City is about 120 miles from Mound Minnesota so I took the car and drove up to cuddle our twins Robbie and Jacob for the day. While they napped I had a nice visit with Gretchen and after a nice dinner with the family I headed back.Day 8 Friday
It rained all night.
We headed for home with a short stop at a tire place in Mason City. That short stop probably saved us from sitting through what might have been the worst storm and wind we have ever experienced in a campground. We drove to Geneseo, Il. All along the road we saw streaks of lightning and darkness ahead of us. We arrived at the campground to find the electricity in the town was out due to a storm with 70 mph winds and enough rain to flood some of the sites namely, ours. We boondocked for the night.
It rained all night. Do you see a theme here?Day 9 Saturday
Home sweet home. It was a better experience than I had anticipated. All that rain seemed to hit us mostly at night, I found some great things to do while Don attended his seminars, and enjoyed the camaraderie that always accompanies gatherings of people of shared interests.
No comments:
Post a Comment