SAL Rally Oct. 9th & 10th

It was another successful SAL rally with 13 rigs in attendance! A good time was had by all!

On Thursday, Oct. 8th, Ray & I worked a half day. We left home a little after 1PM and arrived at San Antonio Lake about 4 PM. YAY, it was still light out and we didn't have to set up in the dark!!

Steve & Terry, Eldon & Nancy were already there. We spent a nice quiet evening together.

The next morning after breakfast, Ray and I started gearing up for the rest of the gang. Everyone pitched in and helped. We hung the SAL Rally banner and set up the picnic tables up for a group gathering.

If you organize it.........they will come. We had a steady stream of arrivals all day. The last three rigs arrived about 8 PM. Several of us helped guide them into their sites with flashlights. All attendees received a welcome goody bag when they arrived. They were filled with all sorts of goodies either donated by a couple of organizations. Or they were purchased by me with the $$ donated by the attendees. There was some good stuff in there!

We woke up to an overcast sky, but it wasn't cold. Jill & Bill fixed banana pancakes, with homemade boysenberry syrup and bacon on their big outdoor grill for everyone. It was really nice not to have to cook breakfast, but extra nice that I didn't have to wash any dishes. Thanks Jill and Bill!!

After the overcast sky burned off on Saturday morning, it was nice and sunny and the temperature was just right, not hot or cold, just right! The lake is really low, three years of drought hasn't helped, but the farmers in the area needed water for irrigation, so the lake has been opened up for them. Hopefully this winter we will have a normal rain fall and next fall we will see a nice full lake!

At 1 PM we had an ice cream social potluck. Several people brought ice cream while others brought all the fixings. YUM!!!!

Saturday night Head Grill Master Newton, grilled up our tri-tip to perfection, along with his grill helpers Steve and my DH, Ray. The side dishes and deserts were pot luck. There was plenty of GREAT food to go around. Every one's food was wonderful and nobody starved. Robin has recently taken up the art of Dutch Oven (DO) cooking and delighted us all with a couple of wonderful DO pot full of yummy delights. I LOVED the potato dish she fixed on Friday night!

After dinner we voted for funniest t-shirt. The majority of the votes went to Eldon and Cheryl. Eldon taking the lead by one vote with Cheryl in second place. Eldon's "SAL-A-Holic" t-shirt was hilarious and created by his SO Nancy.

Next was our traditional "White Elephant Bingo" where everyone goes home with a prize! All players contribute at least one white elephant to the swap table. Each player gets to select a white elephant on their first bingo of each game. The first person to get a black out wins a special gift wrapped prize. Our blackout winners were:

Eldon - Cobra walkie talkies and a gift certificate for "Good Sam" membership renewal

Steve - Grilling temperature fork, grill lighters and a Camping Cookbook

Bill - Memory Board and a $25.00 gift certificate to CampingWorld

Michelle - Gourmet flavored marshmallows, telescoping grilling forks, chocolate coated shortbread cookies and a gift certificate for "Trailer Life" magazine

After Bingo we enjoyed the time around the campfire before retiring for the evening.

Sunday morning most of us were busy with breakfast and packing up and readying for our trip back home. Jill & Bill and Nancy & Eldon extended their stay for one more night and left on Monday.

We left SAL about 10:30 AM and after several short stops, dropping the 5er off at our storage lot we were home about 2 PM. It was a great rally, we had a wonderful time and it's now time to start planning the next one Feb. 12th & 13th 2010!