The Rally at Perry

For 3 days before the rally, we were at a park in Unadilla, GA. Nothing to exciting there, except when I decided to leave the park and fill up the rig, hoping to save a few dollars on the rising diesel prices. I slowly drove out the front gate, past the office, and drove 1 mile to the station. Upon my return, I stopped at the entrance, but did not go inside to say "I'm back...". The golf-cart police took off after me with lights flashing and caught up with me right before I pulled back into our spot. He was trying to make a case for me bypassing the office to get a free spot. Like someone in a 43' motor home is going to sneak in anywhere!

We had early registration for the rally, which was 7:00am - noon. Of course, someone (I'm not say who!) was very anxious to get there, so, on Wednesday morning, we arrived at the Georgia State Fairgrounds about 6:40am. That put us about 20 rigs back from the entrance gate. By 7:30am we were parked and set up...and the sun was just coming up. The volunteers told us that electricity would be on at 1:00pm, but at about 7:45am, someone flicked the switch. We were ready! All of the RV exhibits would not be open until Friday; however, a motor home preview would open at 3:00pm on Thursday. Of course, we headed off to the Country Coach display promptly at 3:00pm, to see if anything new was out there. After seeing all of the new coaches, we were still very happy with our choice. We also looked at several other brands that we had missed at our last rally.

One fun thing at a rally is the evening entertainment. At our first rally, we only went to one show, and it was great. This time, we planned on going to most of the shows. Night one was an oldies group, the Vogues, who had several hits, including "You're the One". They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for vocal groups in 2001. For us, they were forgettable. They had to do a long medley of Beach Boy songs to fill in for their lack of recognizable songs. Night two was supposed to be Frankie Valli from the Four Seasons; however, he ended up in the hospital, and, on very short notice, the Rally got Bobby Vinton to sub. We can say we really enjoyed this show. Bobby has a venue in Branson, and he has a very Vegas-like performance. He recorded many "colorful" songs: Blue on Blue, Roses are Red, and Blue Velvet to name a few. Night three was themed prom-night, with a big band. All of the activities at the rally had us beat, so we passed on this night. We were very excited to see the Sunday night entertainer, who was Ricky Skaggs. We knew him as a country-western singer, but I guess we were stuck in the 90's. In the mid-90's Ricky turned to Bluegrass. We had met up with some friends, John and Pat, for the Vinton show, and again for this show. About 5 songs in, while I was dozing off, Donna turned to Pat and asked her how she liked the music. The response was "we don't play this kind of music in our home!". That sealed it: the four of us bailed out. Us and many others, I might add. I would think that the Rally organizers would try and maximize the entertainment to the largest segment of the rally-goers. Bluegrass doesn't fit into that category. Oh well, better luck next rally. They announced that the next rally will be in Albuquerque next April. We'll have to see if that fits into our plans.

The rally afforded us the opportunity to attend several seminars that we missed last time - if you recall we were looking at motor homes at that one! We learned much, and had a great time looking at all of the RV goodies for sale at the exhibit hall. Abbey really enjoyed the fairgrounds, and she really pulled me around on our walks. All in all, it was a great experience for all of us.

On Monday, we took one last walk through the exhibits, and then headed out to lunch with John and Pat, to say our goodbyes until the next time. We had met them while staying at our "home" in Livingston, TX. At that time, they told us they were heading over to another Escapees park in Summerdale, Alabama. A few days later we headed over there, and met up with them. We told them about our plans for the rally, and they decided to go. It's great how we meet people and click, and then we end up meeting up again as we continue our journey.