Monaco America First Ever Mini-Rally

We wrapped up the rally last night with a fantastic catered dinner at the casino. As a matter of fact it seemed like most of our time here was spent eating. I've been unable to report on the rally until now because the RV park here did not have WiFi. They finally got it up and working yesterday. I've been offline all week and, as anyone who knows me will attest, I've been having computer withdrawals.

Although the rally did not officially start until last Sunday evening I came up on Wednesday, October 1. Claremore is just outside of Tulsa and is just over 100 miles from Oklahoma City. Joanne stayed home until the next day so she could accompany her mother to a doctor's appointment. So, that Wednesday evening Buddy Joe and I batched. We did have two other coaches arrive here at Will Rogers Downs Racetrack and Casino on the 1st. One couple from Kansas and my brother and sister-in-law, who live a little ways south of Oklahoma City.

By Sunday afternoon we had a total of seventeen coaches here and ready to party. We did have two couples that had to cancel at the last minute and they were missed. We started off the festivities Sunday night with a big bar-b-que meal provided by the Oklahoma members. Nancy, my sister-in-law, provided the meat with the other four Oklahoma couples providing salad, desserts and drinks. This was a wonderful way to get things started. After dinner we showed the movie The Wild Hogs with Tim Allen.

Each morning we started the day with a coffee get together in our rally building located adjacent to the RV parking area. We also had a couple of seminars during the week and had several sessions of bingo and a washer toss game. Also worked into this was breakfast at the casino and an ice cream social on Monday afternoon. On Monday night we all gathered to watch the movie The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. At the end someone asked who decided to show a "tear jerker" movie after watching a comedy the night before.

Most of our time during the days were spent visiting, playing games or working on crafts. The ladies did have a gathering in lieu of the Women's Tea that is normally held at our big rallies. We had catered dinners at the casino on Tuesday and Thursday and there were exceptionally good. On Tuesday morning it was decided to have a pot-luck breakfast and we had a big pot-luck dinner on Wednesday night along with a Halloween Party. Again, what this bunch does best is eat. During the Party we did get a visit from Presidential Candidate John McCain.

I spent most of the week keeping our records straight, collecting 2009 membership dues and applications and money for the Spring 2009 rally in Goshen, Indiana. Although I had served as Treasurer of a small RV club in the past I really did not realize how big a job this would become when I was asked to serve in this position with Monaco America. It is an honor to serve but does take a lot of time keeping all the monies straight. At a regular rally we also normally keep an information/registration desk up and running. Since there were only a few of us I took on that job also.

Most of our members unhooked and pulled out this morning. We are down to four coaches and two of them will leave tomorrow. We'll stay here until Sunday before heading home. While we are in the area we want to go over to the town of Jenks and visit the Oklahoma Aquarium. We have been pretty busy with the rally so have not done much sightseeing, although some of our members were able to work that in. We did get to check out the Blue Whale in the town of Catoosa on old Route 66. This has been an attraction for many years but I don't ever seem to have my camera with me when driving by it. This is one of the attractions on the RoadsideAmerica.com website of odd and unusual attractions that are not in the guide books. We also had some fun at the antique car and car parts swap meet that was held here at the RV Park last weekend. There were many nice cars to look over that were here for sale. Although they were very nice I did resist the temptation to buy one.