"The Rally"

Wednesday, March 21st, we left North Ranch in Congress after having our propane tanks filled, and dumping our gray and black tanks and filling up our fresh water tank. We traveled 68 miles to Avondale, near Phoenix, where "The Rally" was being held at the Phoenix International Raceway. We had to pick up our rally packet from the "will call" and then were directed to a line where we waited about 45 minutes until we were finally parked. Then we went to the registration area get additional information and schedules. Esthermay Brooks, a Maryland Good Sam, was working in this area so we talked briefly with her and asked her about places to eat as we had not had lunch and it was near 2pm. She recommended "Black Bear Restaurant" and gave us directions. We easily found the restaurant, remembered that we had eaten at this restaurant in Lake Havesu City several years ago.
Thursday we went to some seminars during the day. The evening entertainment for this evening was "Bowzer's Rock and Roll Party" which starred Bowzer from the group Sha Na Na. It was a lively and entertaining show. As we were leaving the entertainment area we met up with Rita and Bill Fordham, friends and part of the Traveling Americans camping group that we belong to. We talked together briefly and said we would all try to get together out for a meal.

Friday we went to more seminars and through the vendor and dealer displays. The evening entertainment was Bill Cosby who for an hour told stories that had everyone laughing.

Saturday was much the same routine as Friday. We are life members of the Good Sam club so we had a cocktail party to attend that evening. The entertainment on this evening was Martina McBride, another enjoyable evening.

This rally kept us busy and we still had not been able to get together with Bill and Rita so we made plans to go out for breakfast Sunday morning. The four of us went to the Black Bear Restaurant and had good breakfasts. Returning to the rally, a special tribute was held for veterans. Veterans,and that included Tom, assembled and paraded to the stage area and then were seated in front of the stage for a short program honoring these veterans. After this tribute we walked through the vendor area one last time and then returned to the motorhome. Mid afternoon we went out to a Mexican restaurant for early dinner. The evening entertainment for Sunday evening was a group "Ticket to Ride" that impersonated the Beatles. They were also good but we left before the end of the show since the seats seemed to be extremely hard on this particular night. All day long folks were leaving the rally and heading for wherever. Rita sent us a text message that they had left in the evening after others in their area had pulled out giving room for them to maneuver their motorhome out- they had company coming to Casa Grande to spend time with them.

We enjoyed the rally. The area that we were camped in was some distance from the infield of the racetrack where the all the activities were held. Even though trams were circling through the camping area often the trams were filled when they reached our stop so we did alot of walking. The entertainment was wonderful even sitting on hard metal stadium seats. There were 3370 RV's camped at the rally and each day there were several hundred people that came in for the day so it was somewhat crowded at times especially in the vendors tent. There were give aways during the rally of some extremely nice prizes unfortunately we did not win anything. We did take advantage of the offer given to those attending this rally of attending the Louisville, Kentucky rally in June at no cost except for electric hook-ups.

Today, Monday, we got underway about 8:15am and headed for Mesa about 45 miles to the east. Coupons were given out at the rally for 3 free nights of camping at several campgrounds in the Mesa area so we decided to take advantage of this offer. Another coupon for 1 night of free camping was offered in the Tucson area so after our 3 nights in Mesa we plan to stay in Tucson for a night before heading to New Mexico and then on further east.