October 5-9, 2011
Wednesday, the Mammoth headed to Canton, TX and Mill Creek Ranch, for the Texas Chapter of the Heartland Owner's Club Rally. Their scrolling sign said, "Welcome Heartland Owners Club Rally." Tony headed out after school, and I joined them later that evening. The Rally was to be held Friday and Saturday, but there were already a few rigs there! Tony had already been visited by a few of the attendees and our Chapter Leaders, Jay and Stella.
The next morning, Tony headed back to work before sun-up, and I stayed around the trailer for some work, even though I was technically supposed to be off for the day. After a while I decided to stop working and go for a walk, to see what was happening around the park. I met some of the group, sitting around and having coffee. It was like visiting old friends, as many of them are active on the forum, and they are just as helpful and friendly in person! After a while I got an urgent message from work, so I had to say goodbye. After much trial and error, I realized I needed to go outside the park to see if I could get a firewall-free wifi signal to do some changes to a file on my work computer. Once I returned, I again decided to visit with folks and relax a bit. I showed a couple of people the Mammoth, as well.
Once Tony got finished with school for the day, he came back to the RV park, and we had dinner. He brought Baker's BBQ, as there was one right at the exit to the RV Park! It was wonderful. Even though Tony was tired, we went for a walk and met up with some more folks that were hanging out and visiting. About 9:30pm, the group started to thin, so we said good night. Both of us had to work the next day.
Friday, we both went to work. I got back about 5:30pm, so I walked around the sites and took pictures... It had filled up! We had 26 sites full of Mammoth's brothers and sisters and cousins: Landmark, BigHorn, BigCountry, ElkRidge, Sundance, and NorthTrail were all represented. I decided to stop and visit with a couple from Mansfield, JD and Glenda. We had a lot in common, and talked for a long time! Tony got back to the park about 11:30pm, after his football game. (Terrell lost, 56-6 to Forney.)
Saturday morning we slept a little late... it was after 8 before we got up. We had a wonderful breakfast, and got ready to go over to the RV Dealer nearby, ExploreUSA, for some of the Rally's festivities. We got to go through many of the Heartland rigs, and then they hosted a fish fry for us! It was good food and company, but they needed more seating for us all. After the food, every couple got to put their tickets into the hat for a drawing for one of two 32" televisions! We didn't win, but what a nice giveaway! After that we headed back to the RV Park to visit about starting a North Texas Chapter of the Owner's Club. Jay kept looking our way and dropping hints! We would love to be a part of it, but not sure we can devote the time to do it justice, right now.
After the meeting, we took a needed nap, then got ready for the pot luck dinner. Tony and I prepared a pot roast and had put it into the crock pot right after breakfast. It was delicious! There were too many dishes to try them all, but everything I tried was out of this world! After dinner, we had door-prize drawings, and everyone walked away with a prize, and some, two!
After that many folks headed back outside to gather and visit. I decided to stay and play Mexican Train, a dominoes game, with 7 others, and we had a blast. The facility had to close at 10pm, so we stopped play. We walked out and discovered it had started to rain! This is the first real rain we've seen in a month, and I can't recall when we were in the Mammoth last when it rained. It was welcome! Tony had been hanging out with JD, while Glenda and I were playing dominoes. We exchanged info with them, so we could keep in touch.
Sunday morning we were slow to get moving, so Tony slipped out and got us donuts. Wow! I had the best Apple Fritters! why is it everything tastes better in the Mammoth? We were watching the radar and realized that heavy rain was on its way, so we decided to go ahead and get ready to leave. We packed everything up, took Eileen's picture, said our goodbyes, and got out by 11:45am.
We took Mammoth straight back to storage and unloaded. It finally started raining in Terrell by mid afternoon.
Overall, we had a great time, and really enjoyed visiting and meeting new folks and "old" forum friends. We are looking forward to the next Rally opportunity!
