Spirit of the Road RVillage Rally Opening

We were less than an hour from the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park where the Spirit of the Road RVillage Rally was held so we didn't have to leave early but we wanted to get checked in and settled before noon. The park is huge. They had a separate entrance set up for RVillage Rally attendees and lots of volunteers so the lines of RVs waiting to get in last year was completely eliminated this year. We were quickly checked in and given badges and programs and led to our sites. Everyone but Martha was in the Loop section. She was way over by the lake in a less than desirable sloping site. Our friend Karan was supposed to come but had to cancel due to RV issues. She graciously allowed Martha to move to her site which meant we were all close together. I'm on the left and Mary Jane is next to me.

Carolyn is in the center and this was taken before Martha moved in between us. Birdie was on my other site and Liz and Bob were just across the road.

Lots of trees here.

We all got badges on a lanyard just like Carolyn's which we had to wear all weekend to get into everything. They were really nice.

This is Curtis Coleman, the founder of RVillage, welcoming first time rally attendees. In case you don't know about RVillage, it is a community of full-time, part-time, some-of-the-time RVers who learn together and connect both in-person and online on a free website. There are a lot of different groups for various interests on the website. Check it out at RVillage.com.

There were lots of first-timers.

Later in the evening a large number of attendees met at the amphitheater.

Curtis introduced Cherie Ve Ard and Chris Dunphy. You may know them as Technomadia or the Mobile Internet Resource Center. They were the technology help bringing RVillage to life.

We moved over to another area of the park and set up some chairs for some more entertainment.

These are called firebirds. There were four of them and they are stoked with wood and build up huge flames. It was pretty early so they aren't fully engaged yet.

We had a good time but hit the road back to the RVs while the night was still fairly young. There were shuttles going around so we managed to get places between the shuttles and a couple cars when shuttle timing wasn't reliable.