Opening Ceremony

The convention was set up to make it easy to get around to all the events. There were golf car taxis stationed at the Expo Center as well as roaming the areas where all the RVs were parked. As you can see in the background, we weren't the only event going on. There was a barrel racing competition as well as another show but they were in other buildings.

 They had a special welcome party for all the first time rally attendees so Carolyn and I attended that. Mary Jane has belonged to RVW for a long time and has attended many rallies around the country. Don't hold me to the statistics but I heard there were about 180 rally attendees in 140 rigs and about 40% were first time attendees.

The board of directors welcomed the first timers. The woman speaking is from my chapter, the Texas Ramblin' Roses.

 This is one of the RV parking areas which just happens to be filled with Ramblin' Roses. My rig is front left. Our senior chapter member's rig is on the right.....Barbara is 92 and still traveling the country. One of her daughter's may drive a vehicle behind her but the Class C is Barbara's and she drives it herself. Just wanted to lay waste to a common misconception......if you are a woman you really need to get a small Class B. Ha!  Out of the 180 rigs at the convention, possibly 20 were either small Class B's or tiny trailers. You can see here what the majority of the women drive or pull.

The Ramblin' Roses were planning to have a fish fry the day before the convention officially opened but two things happened. First, it got pretty darn cold in Shawnee and second, everyone at the convention was invited to bring a dish and attend. We moved to an indoor location and we had lots of guests. Jimmie, our president furnished the fish and fried it.....she is a big fisherman. As you can se below, we had lots of dishes to choose from.

Mary Jane enjoying her dinner.

Quite a crowd came to our gathering and everyone had fun.

 The Ramblin' Roses hosted the convention along with the Mid America Chapter. We provided the Honor Guard composed of prior service members. They did a great job with Barb Long heading it up.

 

 

Our Chapter President, Jimmie Andrews, carried our banner in.

 

As you can see, the Texas Ramblin' Roses are a large, enthusiastic group easily recognized when they wear their yellow chapter shirts.

Carolyn is a Rose but she also belongs to the Heart of Dixie Chapter which covers Louisiana to Georgia. When her chapter president found out she was at the convention, she asked Carolyn to carry their chapter banner. Carolyn managed to find another Dixie member who had just joined RVW and Heart of Dixie and shared the honor with her.

We had some entertainment that evening as well as a cocktail hour but now things were officially started although many members had been there a week early to get things set up.

 

One of the seminars presented right before the grand opening was a two day session of RV Maintenance. The first session was a basic course and the second was an advanced.  I sat in as seminar security for a couple of hours for the advanced course. Let me tell you, Barbara Jording, an RVIA/RVDA certified RV service technician, really knows her stuff and is a great instructor.

 

I should mention that the Maintenance courses along with a number of sightseeing options were held before the convention actually started. Carolyn, Mary Jane, and I attended the Notable Exceptions concert Sunday night and it was outstanding.