Sedalia and the Escapades RV Rally

Also luckily we posted on Facebook that we were in the area and our good friends Marty and Peggy sent us a message that they were in the area too so we went stayed an extra night and caught up on their news.

The famous Big Chicken in Branson

Friends were popping up all over as we got closer to Sedalia and the Rally. After a very pleasant couple of days at the Joplin Elks Lodge with a side trip to the Springfield Bass Pro museum and store we headed South to Branson and pulled in to the Turkey Creek SKP RV Park about 10 minutes after John and Debbie. We took them completely by surprise. The 4 of us wandered around Branson and caught up on each others news, then up popped Larry and Marilyn from our Florida chapter 57 at the Sunday Ice Cream Social.

Paddle Wheeler tours

While we were doing laundry the next day in walked Lynn and Becky who we last saw in Florida. To top it all on Wednesday we got a message from Peter and Donna Ward who adopted us into the Florida chapter 2 years ago! And we have some BBQ sauce for them that they can only get in Arizona.

They named it after us!

It's fun here in Branson it should be a riot once we get to the Rally and meet all the rest of the crowd! We found an “English Village” around the corner from the campground with a street called Downing Street and a Craft Beer pub called the Downing Pour House!

The Prime Minister wasn't home.

After a night in another Elks Lodge just 30 miles from the Missouri State Fairgrounds where the Escapades Rally was being held we drove to the rally campground in heavy rain. That quit after a couple of hours but the ground was really soft and several rigs sank in as they parked. Luckily not us!

The RV's roll into Sedalia

Just walking in to registration had us meeting Marty and Peggy who were manning the desk. Pretty soon we saw Rey and Lorreta then Carol and Matt, John and Debbie, almost the whole of Chapter 57 from Florida. 

Our camping spot was right on a corner where everyone walked by. We looked on Facebook and Nancy and Art were back to back with our rig.

Marty and Peggy doing registration

Parties started breaking out, the RV dealer show had a happy hour each evening then there were chapter parties. Entertainment every evening, seminars, I taught 2 painting classes, I had 3 entries in the photo contest and one of them got 3^rd place! We even ended up running the Photo Contest registration for a couple of hours too so with the time we spent running the “Row” booth and teaching painting we qualified for tickets in the volunteers prize drawing. 

Us running the Chapter 25 booth on the "Row"

Our luck ran true to form and we didn't win anything.

A full painting class

Nancy loves my classes!

First class

Second 

Closing ceremonies were followed by a street party with a very loud band, food vendors, a beer and a wine vendor, and the finale for the whole week was a firework display.

The Chapter 57 crowd fill out campsite

Our "Adopted Family" 

Serious partyers

The chili cookoff

We decided to stay a couple of days after the rally so we can explore Sedalia, see the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival and the Truck and Tractor Pulling. Should be more fun.