In spite of some setbacks, such as overbooking vendor spaces, and not having a large enough building for all of the activities, we managed to make our 2010 Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally a success! At yesterday evening’s closing ceremonies, the audience let us know that they had a good time, and we really appreciated their support.

I’m a natural ham and thrive on the attention, but Miss Terry is never comfortable getting up on stage. During the opening and closing ceremonies at our rallies, she let’s me drag her up there, but she’d be much happier just doing what she shines at, working quietly behind the scenes, taking care of 1,001 duties to make sure the rally runs smoothly.

Last night when I had her on the stage, the audience gave her a standing ovation, and if anybody ever deserved one, it sure is Terry. Here is a rare picture of Terry up on stage, during our opening ceremony earlier in the week.

It’s late, and I still have a couple of hours of work to get done for tomorrow, so I’m going to share some pictures my buddy Paul Anderson took at the rally. Here I am enjoying a hug from my friend Marcia Jones. I sure do appreciate a pretty lady!

Our vendors all seemed to do well. Here are Bill and Janet Adams from Internet Anywhere, talking to Stu McNichol. Stu said Bill was able to solve a problem with his rooftop TV antenna when the techno-geeks at the network dropped the ball a couple of times.

Our vendors had all kinds of goodies for sale that no RVer can do without.

Here are our friends, Butch and Fonda Williams, who sell induction cookware, and make the most delicious almond toffee candy in the world!

Our rented tent was a busy place all during the rally, serving as a classroom, a place to socialize, and as a venue for our evening entertainment.

Our classrooms were filled with students for the many seminars we held.

Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School presented an excellent seminar on Testing Air Brakes.

For those looking for some adventure in their lives, the Beginning Kayaking seminar was popular.

This morning we’ll have coffee and donuts, sponsored by Mac McCoy, better known as Mac the Fire Guy. Then we have about 75 folks going out to tour the Heartland Recreational Vehicles factory, while others will be hitching up and heading off to their next adventures. Still others will be staying on here at Elkhart Campground through the Labor Day weekend, and quite a few will be here until the Escapees RV Club Escapade rally begins in a couple of weeks.

Terry and I will spend a couple of days wrapping up all of the paperwork from the rally, settling our bill with Elkhart Campground, and hopefully finding a few minutes to catch our breath.

But we won’t have a lot of time to relax, since we have to be in Hershey, Pennsylvania in less than a week to get settled in as vendors at the big Hershey RV Show.

Thought For The Day – Statistics show that at the age of seventy, there are five women to every man. Isn’t that a lousy time for a guy to get those odds?

Somebody please note for future reference that I was up and outside of our motorhome before the sun was up Monday morning. While that may not be quite as momentous an occasion as when man first walked on the moon, in the little universe that revolves around me, it’s pretty darned close!

Miss Terry and I got the registration building opened up, and Mike and Elaine Loscher were right behind us, ready to help get everybody signed in for the rally. Mike and Elaine are such great friends and loyal supporters, we don’t know what we’d do without them.

Here is Mike, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to greet the day! I never completely understand anybody who can smile that early in the morning. There has to be something terribly wrong in his mind!

Before long the folks started filing in to pick up their name badges and door prize drawing tickets. We saw a lot of friends who have been at previous Gypsy Journal rallies, and also quite a few new faces who are joining us for the first time.

Here are Connie Anderson and Elaine Loscher, manning the registration table. It’s okay, Connie, I have that same lost and confused expression on my face a lot of the time!

And what’s a Gypsy Journal rally without a lot of fun and laughter. I’m not sure I even want to know what set Dave Damon and Connie Anderson off in this picture, but knowing these two, it couldn’t have been pretty!

In the vendor room, things were starting to get busy, as folks shopped for all kinds of RV goodies and gadgets. Bill and Janet Adams from Internet Anywhere took advantage of a quiet moment between customers to catch their breath. From automatic rooftop satellite dishes to wireless routers, Bill and Janet have just what you need to get connected on the road.

Gayle Longwell was busy manning the Passport America booth. Passport America is the nation’s largest discount camping club, and we have belonged since before we hit the road fulltime, over twelve years ago.

Jean Damon sells 303 products to help protect your RV and to keep it looking like new, and she is also an excellent masseuse. After our rally in Ohio last year, Jean gave me a massage, and I was so relaxed that I could hardly walk back to our Winnebago afterward!

Russ and Debbie Davis are a fun couple who sell all kinds of personalized items, including these great insulated tote bags. They donated some of them as door prizes at the rally.

We met Gay Miller from Coyote Sales at our very first RV rally, years ago, and have been friends ever since. Gay and her husband Ben sell Pressure Pro tire monitoring systems, Wilson trucker antennas and amplifiers for cell phones, routers, and a lot of other great high tech goodies.

At 3 p.m. we had our Welcome get together, followed by an introduction to all of our vendors. Then, after a short break, Dennis Hill, Denny Orr, Frank Hinman, Mac McCoy, and Daryl Lawrence sat in on our Ask the Experts panel, in which the crowd could ask questions about every aspect of RVing, and take advantage of a couple of lifetimes worth of accumulated knowledge.

At 7 p.m. we drew names for door prizes. Greg White spent over two weeks collecting door prizes from local merchants, mostly restaurants, and we passed most of them out, to give people time to use them before the rally ends. We have a lot more door prizes left to go!

By the time the door prizes were over, Terry and I were both really dragging. We grabbed a quick dinner, then spent what was left of the evening writing the blog, printing some of our RV guides and booklets, and were in bed much earlier than usual.

Today we’ll finish registering any late arrivals, start our seminars, and this evening will be our Hoosier Honey Beauty Contest. I guarantee that will be a hoot!

Thought For The Day – Marriage is a relationship where one person is always right, and the other is the husband.