Region A Rally

By: Kelles Fleming

The Region A Rally trip began with Laura Sue and I traveling alone until we were just north of Americus.  There we met up with Grandpa Bob and Marlene, and some of the others from B-2.

After topping off with gas in Americus, we rode to Camilla, Georgia and dined at the world renowned restaurant…OK, it was McDonalds!  After a meal of the McDonalds usual, we continued our way on to Perry and found our hotel.

Day one was short because of the traveling and getting registered.  The hardest thing we did was work at finding the coolest place to set.  The contractors hired to provide air conditioning brought the wrong equipment and it was not footing the bill when it came to cooling the building.  So, we spent most of the time outside including the BBQ dinner provided.  After dinner, it was time to rest and cool off at the hotel and bring an end to day one.

Day two was lined up with the Couple of the Year selection.  Although Sid and Donna made Georgia proud, the other judges didn’t see what all of us saw in our wonderful representatives.  Jake and Joanne Jacobs from Florida will be representing Region A during the 2006 – 2007 period.  Once the COY selection was over, it was time to play indoor games in the nicely cooled building and checking out the vendors.  With the number of vendors being pretty small, it took little time to shop.  TJ and the Boss were the busiest vendors on the grounds.  The day was filled with seminars and other training.  The evening was filled with an escorted parade to the town square where some of the local merchants stayed open and provided shopping and dinning.  The local high school had very good BBQ available as they worked to raise money for their senior trip to New York City.  Karla Greer got a good crowd of folks to line dance in the street and that prompted the radio station the give away prizes to the top three dancers.  The nighttime signaled the beginning of the lighted bike show.

The best part of the day came when we made it back to the hotel.  Sid and Donna, Bob and Karla, and Laura Sue and I were relaxing in the lobby waiting on Sid and Donna’s son and his family to arrive.  The best part was Sid had this arranged and Donna had no idea.  Seeing the grand-children made her forget all about the COY results and put a huge smile on her face.  No better way to end the day.

Day three was spent relaxing and taking it easy.  We found Gene and Pat Whiddon and others from Chapter A-2.  We tagged along with them for part of the day and they invited us to ride to Steinhatchee Beach to have supper at the Fiddler’s Restaurant.  The ride was fun and the dinner was even more fun along with great food.  On the ride back to Perry, we stopped in Keaton Beach and looked at the water.  Doesn’t that sound exciting?  Well, when you hang with this group, even looking at water takes on a new meaning.  A lot of jokes, stories and laughs were heard while we relaxed on the peer.  Once we arrived back in Perry, wouldn’t you know that ice cream was on the mind of some of the members of the group.  After stopping at Dairy King, I believe it must be related the DQ in some way, we made our plans to head home the next morning.

Laura Sue and I met up with the band of merry A-2 members to hit the road at 6:30 Sunday morning.  With Al Starley leading the group up the highway.  We had to accomplish the coveted U-turn to get back to the Ryan’s restaurant to have breakfast in Thomasville.  From there, we parted ways and came on north towards home while the Dublin folks took their route home.

The Rally was smaller in size than the others we have attended.  But, having the opportunity to travel and visit with the folks from chapters B-2 and A-2 made the trip very enjoyable and we are glad we kept our plans and attended.

If you want to see more photos of the Rally fun, click on the photos above or got to the Photo Album link.