North Carolina, Marion - Saturday, May 30, 2015 - RV Dreams Rally

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY TO GRANDKIDS JACKSON AND BRAELYNN (sorry grandma didn’t write a blog on your birthday)

We are kind of dressed up for the Hawaiian Luau tonight J.

 

 

They were setting up for quite a feast – Hawaiian shrimp skewers and drumsticks, Hawaiian rice, sweet potato casserole, pineapple and orange salad, rolls and cake.

Plus a whole roasted pig.  I’m a little squeamish about this, but this looks better than the “after” picture would have. 

 

 

I think it looked better on the plate.  Everything tasted great.

We’ve had a good time with old friends, Roger and Dianne.

 

 

And, new friends:

Joe and Carolyn

Bob and Lindy

Tom and Linda, hope they get their house sold soon.

After the luau they had a hard time finding volunteers for the games.  Beach ball relay might have been easier on the knees than the Frisbee relay I participated in earlier in the week – I have bruises from that.

Lazy man’s volleyball had a few takers.

Howard has a fire ready to go but we headed home before they got it going.  We need to get ready to leave in the morning after breakfast.  We have to make a stop at Wal-Mart before we go too far we haven’t bought any groceries in about ten days so we are getting pretty low.  We may make it as far as Roanoke, VA tomorrow, we’ll see.

North Carolina, Marion - Monday, May 25, 2015 - RV Dreams Rally

This is the first gathering of the group, we have people from previous RV Dreams rallies from 2008 through the present.

 

 

We enjoyed a catered barbeque dinner Saturday evening.

Our “ice breaker” event Saturday evening involved teams of six trying to shoot marshmallows into cups from one end of the table to the other.  As we were supposed to be picking up the marshmallows, things escalated (or deteriorated, depending on your point of view) into a marshmallow fight.  It’s hard to catch on film those little marshmallows flying through the air.

Sunday most people stayed home and watched a day of racing on television.  The evening ended with an ice cream social.

Monday has been a busy day.  We started out with a full catered breakfast.  Fun and games started at 1:00.  Some people tried the hula hoop relay.

 

 

I tried the Frisbee relay – we didn’t win, but we didn’t come in last either J.

Our friend Roger, on the left participated in a water balloon relay.

The water balloon relay ended in another free for all.  Notice I backed off for some picture taking.

 

 

The evening ended with a pot luck dinner - lots of good food.

 

 

North Carolina, Marion - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - RV Dreams Rally

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO GRANDSON KYLE

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO DAUGHTER DESIRA AND SON-IN-LAW DAN

This is where we will be until next Sunday – The RV Dreams Rally at the Tom Johnson Camping Center in Marion, NC.  This is a reunion rally for people who have attended previous RV Dreams Rallies.  We’ve already had people from Minnesota and Alabama stop by for some lengthy discussions on living fulltime in an RV – good times.

I got the itch for a marathon cooking session on Thursday before we left Asheville.  I made ranch crackers, seasoned ground beef filling for some sandwiches we will take to a pot luck tomorrow night, cheesecake filling for some potential dessert, dried bread crumbs for future meat loaf, chocolate mayonnaise cake with a new recipe for brown sugar icing (yum) and a couple of crocks with Hawaiian ham and cheese spread.  It occurred to me as I'm writing this that if I am going to publish food pictures I should get better at food styling to make it look pretty.

When we left on Friday the weather was great and the scenery was beautiful.

 

 

Right before we got into Marion we came to some 6%-7% grades for several miles.  I won’t lie, these steep downgrades scare me.  Truck emergency ramps one after the other just don't give me confidence.   Greg and the coach both handle them well, we never have any trouble but I still hold my breath most of the way down.  I do that even in a car.

Lots of people are starting to gather for the rally.

This is the view from our front window.

Beyond the trees is a quiet river.

This morning everyone is getting registered and there will be a catered dinner this evening followed by a campfire.  The rest of the day is going to be spent just hanging out.  We didn’t sign up for any of the day trips some people will be taking.  We decided we would rather just get together to cuss and discuss the lifestyle we have chosen with other people who have done the same.