Host to Host Gathering

Tuesday morning was our first get-together for the Host to Host committee.  All went well and we look forward to hosting and being hosted by the Sedalia folks.

Bob Vasser arrived this afternoon and will stay in the Fairgrounds campground for another day or so before moving on to Niagara Falls.  His sons and grandsons will alternate seeing the East Coast with him in his trailer.

The Nor Cal people went to dinner tonight at Little Big Horn Cattle Company.  All our meals were delicious.  The place was full of Airstreamers as well.

Weekend before the Rally Begins

Saturday, June 23.  Ron and Diana Bray from St. Louis came for a visit.  We bonded on our last cruise to the Panama Canal and it was just great to see them again.

We had lunch at Mighty Melts, took them out north of town to see the Bothwell Lodge, back to town for the Katy Depot and then dinner back at our trailer.  Chuck and Maggie joined us for dinner.

Ron and Diana introduced the rest of us to pork steaks, a Missouri specialty.

We also went across the road to the Swine Barn to see the sheep.  For the past week we've been observing sheep getting an extreme cleaning and were interested in seeing firsthand what exactly was going on.

First there will be a show and then an auction.  Larry was told that this place will be very crowded tomorrow with cars and people everywhere.  This must be a big deal.

After the sheep are shorn (and very attractively, too) they are given covers to wear so they don't get dirty again.

When we walk in the mornings we can always hear the bleating from the barn.  They will be sold as breeding stock and truly are beautiful animals.

After meeting Diana and Ron at Perkins Sunday morning for breakfast we said our good-byes once more and they headed back home to St. Louis.

After the church service we did laundry and then holed up for the rest of the day in the trailer with the AC going full blast.  It was a scorcher today.

Saturday, June 23 Shorn Sheep, Ron & Diana

Bothwell Lodge, Sedalia Library, Jay's Birthday

Pre Rally in Sedalia

The pre rally has progressed well.  As early workers we had tours available to us and we took as many as possible.

There was the Sierra Bullet factory.  Bullet demand has been on the rise during the past three years.  They supply the military as well as private "shooters".  The shooting range is underground and sometimes doubles as a tornado shelter.

Bothwell Lodge, just north of town reminded us somewhat of the Ehrmann Mansion at Lake Tahoe.  John Bothwell built it in the early 1900's as a summer home for himself and friends.  His wife died at age 22 from pregnancy complications and he never remarried.  The original dwelling was added onto several times and the grounds are lovely as well.

I don't think we'd ever toured a newspaper before, so the Sedalia Democrat was a first.  Ahh, the smell of INK!  We had an interesting conversation with one of the writers.  She's responsible for a monthly interview with a veteran and apparently it's become a very popular feature of the paper for both veterans and readers alike.

The downtown library was built with Carnegie grant money and is a beautiful building.  It's become something of a museum as well.  The OLD newspapers it houses are crumbling from age.

The Katy Depot was an attraction we visited on our own.  The Katy trail begins there; a bike trail that was once the railroad route.  The tracks were removed and a trail constructed that goes for hundreds of miles.

Jay Thompson celebrated his birthday Wednesday night with well-wishers who all gathered at his site.
This was after the early worker dinner that featured SubWay sandwiches.  I had nice visits with Dorma and Bill Kindle, Jack and Sherry White and Elna Thompson and Carol Pember.  We all manage to just pick up where we'd last left off.

Our tour of the Bothwell Hotel was impressive.  The rooms are about the size of those in Europe and the renovation most definitely cost more than the original building.

More and more are drifting in.  Carlos and Rosemary Leach arrived yesterday afternoon and came over last night.  The evenings are comfortable enough to sit outside, fortunately.  Others we know will arrive Monday.

Sedalia, MO, and the Airstream Rally - 2012

We arrived in Sedalia, MO, last night and parked at the rally site this morning.  The Missouri State Fairgrounds seems to have all the amenities we could wish for.  Larry is off on his bicycle to check things out and I'm enjoying WiFi.  Life is good.

Our trip East was uneventful, just the way we like it.  The first night was spent just west of Wells, NV, in a Passport America campground and we immediately spotted another Airstream in the park.  It was Barry and Shirley Williams, heading home after two caravans:  Civil War Pt. 2 and Springtime in Kentucky.  It was also our 40th anniversary, so they helped us celebrate with several games of Joker and a lot of visiting and catching-up.

The overnight stay Tuesday was in Wilber, Nebraska.  It claims to be the Czech Capital of the Nebraska and the U.S.  It seemed to me that it's more Czech than the real Czech Republic.  Larry needed to make a withdrawal at the ATM and we stepped inside a meat market that also sold Kolache.
And, I bought an authentic Czech cookbook, made and sold by the locals (all of whom have authentic Czech surnames).

The American Legion runs the campground, as well as several athletic fields.  Tuesday was a baseball game and it seemed as if the entire town turned out to cheer them on.  In spite of it all, we were undisturbed.

Sea Days and Mexico

During all of our sea days we kept busy.  Our schedule consisted of:  get up, go to the gym and work out, stop at the Aqua Spa Cafe for breakfast (and a visit with Matoo), head back to the room and get dressed and then decide what to do next.l

I read a total of four books during the cruise.  "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand was excellent and when I finished it Larry read it - in record speed.  "The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb" was interesting, Betty White's latest was a very quick read and another thick book was quite interesting, but had to be speed-read at the very end of the cruise.

Larry enjoyed his time at the Thelassatherapy (sp?) pool and whirlpool.  It was much quieter and adults-only.  Many friends were made at the pool area, particularly Helen from Australia and Simon from Canada.  Helen was the Australia group's travel guide and we saw her often.  Simon raises pigs and gave us quite an education.  Pork no longer has to be overcooked according to him because of the strides made in raising pigs in sanitary and healthy environments.  No more trichinosis he claimed.

Many games of trivia were available and I joined in on one about Broadway.  I wasn't terrible, but the two ladies on my "team" were hopeless.  I ended up with 15 points out of a possible 40.  The winners got 39!

Chris and Graham Harper were avid trivia players and ping pong competitors.  They won many prizes and at the end were giving them away - to their lucky tablemates.  I'll always think of them when I wear my Celebrity visor and write with my Celebrity pen!  Diana got them as well.  In fact, Graham is responsible for a new rule at trivia contests.  Contestants may NOT touch the director's equipment.  It seems Graham "borrowed" Marleen's microphone without her knowledge and made outrageous claims to the group at large, declaring that the winners would receive a free cruise!

I watched fruit carving demonstrations, put together scrapbook kits and went to cooking demonstrations.

Lunch was usually at the aforementioned Aqua Spa Cafe where we got healthy options.  It made us feel better about the huge dinners we'd be consuming each evening.  Plus, we got to visit with Matoo.

Puerto Vallarta was our next to last port excursion.  Our dinner group decided to skip a tour and just get off the ship and head for Sam's Club and Wal Mart and a shopping mall across from the pier.  Larry and I had spent a week in the area in 2007, so didn't need to see it again.  We wandered around for several hours and then made our way back, stopping at the crafts area at the pier before boarding the ship for lunch.  One interesting thing at Wal Mart:  they sell appliances and Ron opened one of the refrigerators to find an empty soda bottle inside.  One way to stash one's thefts I suppose.

Easter Sunday was another shore excursion.  Larry and I chose to take a bus to Todos Santos, where we'd been on two previous trips.  We love that place!  And, we did see things we hadn't seen before.  They're building a new road that should be very nice when completed.  Baja has never spent more than it had to on roads.  We remember from our past visits that they don't believe in shoulders.  Towing a trailer was a hair raising experience at times.

In retrospect, it was a wonderful trip.  We have new friends, ate delicious food and visited beautiful and interesting places.