6 May 2023 - Last Day of the Texas Rally

 

This is the last official day of the 2023 Texas Alliance RV Rally, and it was full of events.  We started the morning with a continental breakfast and a presentation from our friend from Oshkosh WI, Doug Jarmusz, who represents SkyMed.  This company provides 18emergency travel services to RV'ers such as emergency air transport and so much more.  Should you fall ill, they will not only transport you, but your spouse, your pets and your RV home.  

Our great friends Mike and Rachel Ellis from Arkansas had to depart after breakfast, so we said our goodbyes and we will see them at Elkhart IN at the National Alliance Rally in a few weeks.  The picture above is Rachel and Doreen.

I stayed for the SkyMed presentation and on the way out I snapped this picture of the "sea of Alliance coaches" here for the rally!  

Doreen headed back to do some laundry as we have gone through some clothes here as warm and muggy as it has been. Liberty had vomited on one of our rugs and when Doreen took her out she had diarrhea. We have some medication for that from our veterinarian, so Doreen gave her a pill and she rested during the day.  We could tell she did not feel good.

After SkyMed I came back to the coach and we finished up creating her Texas appetizer items for this evening.  They are a cowboy hat made out of a chocolate-covered Pringle chip with a Rollo on top and then a piece of red licorice rope twisted around the Rollo.  They were a big hit!

Lunch today was provided by Ron Hoover RV and Marine, a local Houston/Galveston RV dealership.  Their company has donated many drawing items and they have provided technicians on golf carts to fix things on your RV that are either under warranty or you can hire them to repair out of warranty items.  They grilled bratwurst and hamburgers for lunch and provided small containers of various flavors of Pringles and some salsa relish.  Ron Hoover's company is first class for sure.  

Rally attendees in live for a burger and brat.

This afternoon Doreen attended a "favorite things" party.  Approximately 41 attended.  Everyone was to bring five items to trade.  Doreen took five Alliance embroidered towels. They called up groups of eight at a time and they all picked one item to keep.  Then the next group came up.  This continued until all the items were gone. 

 In the evening we took over the chocolate cowboy hat appetizers and everyone else also brought various appetizers.  There was a massive amount of food, including meat balls, wings, salads, dips, crackers, meats, and on and on!  The Texas Redneck margarita machine was in operation and other beverages were provided.  Here is one I had not seen before:

After dinner drawings were held to give away various RV-related door prizes and we won a 9' x 12' outdoor RV mat and a door handle assist device.  After the drawings a different sort of auction was held, auctioning off unknown donated items with a few word description as a hint of what you might be bidding on.  All of the proceeds go towards funding next year's Texas Rally.  We donated a large red sombrero that we purchased at the Mexican Market in San Antonio. The hint on that was "Santo Poco", from the Three Amigos movie.  We also donated a  bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon Creme liquor that we picked up at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station.  The hint was "Fluffy Cow (i.e. Buffalo) Juice" .  Of course you don't know what you are bidding on until after you win it, so part of the fun is you have to unwrap it in front of everyone.  It was a lot of fun and was a great way to raise money for the Rally.

Drawings for prizes

The auction items with the hints written on them

Donna Gonzalez, the winning bidder for our sombrero!

Part way through the auction Doreen went back to the coach to get Liberty and they both stayed at the auction for a while and then went back.  We called it a night after our items were auctioned and returned back to the coach to find Liberty had messed on the kitchen rug and it looked like it might have some blood in it. We will keep her on the medication and monitor her closely in the next few days.  

Tomorrow will be our last day here and we will say goodbye to old Alliance friends and new ones we have met here, plus fuel the truck and do our other day-before-departure items.  This has been a great time here.  Thank you so much to the Tyers, Pages, and everyone else who has been involved in organizing the rally and making it so enjoyable.