Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, October 1, 2nd & 3rd, 2013-Amana Colonies RV Park and Event Center

These three days were in preparation for the start of the rally. Tuesday we went to Hiawatha IA to Ketelsen's RV, the sponsoring dealer for our rally. There we met the owner, Gary Ketelsen who told us that he has a lot of fun planned for the rally. His dealership has a very active camping club and a small group within this group is going to entertain us after supper on Saturday. After getting the details worked out with Gary, we came back over (about 20 miles) to Amana to meet our friends Dave and Amy & Lou and Bette for lunch at the Ox Yoke Inn. There I had the best Reuben sandwich I have ever had. That genuine German food is hard to beat! And then on top of that, our friend Lou picked up the lunch tab for all of us. How nice was that? Thank you Lou and Bette.

We walked around town and went to the Visitors Center where we bought tickets to the Oktoberfest this weekend. We came back to the park and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. I managed to get in a nap before someone came by to see what we were going to do for supper but we were still full from lunch. We begged off but when they returned, we all met at Ken and Kathy Strong's place for another campfire and stories. This is probably one of the best things about rallies, the pre-rally get togethers and campfires.

Wednesday was another day of hanging out with our friends and greeting new arrivals. Club President Jim Beletti and his wife Nancy arrived this afternoon and organized a group to go out to the nearby Maid-Rite restaurant for supper. Four truck-loads of us went and we had a good meal and some fine fellowship. The Maid-Rite sandwich is a sort of sloppy joe with onions and pickles and was pretty tasty.

We came back home and had a nice campfire at our site with our neighbors. This park furnishes firewood to guests that comes from a cabinet shop. We use all of their scraps of various sizes of wood which burns up quickly, but since it is dry and untreated or unpainted it burns with almost no smoke. That's always a good thing because someone is always getting a face full of smoke at a campfire.

Thursday was spent with us driving over to Cedar Rapids IA to pick up the supplies and food for the rally. We bought the bulk of items at the Sam's Club store there but went next door to Wal Mart to complete our purchases. I had almost forgotten how hard it is to shop because Stella does ours while I sit in the parking lot or search for Munzees while she shops. We came back here and put everything away at the rally hall. There is a huge freezer with two refrigerators with small freezers so we have plenty of storage. 

Later in the afternoon we went over to Jim's trailer to see the inside of the new model (Savanna) and while there we had a small meeting with David Lippe, a prospect to take over the Iowa chapter and Don and Monica Ashby, the Colorado chapter leaders. 

The group had gone to the Pizza Ranch for supper but we went with Jim & Nancy, David, Don & Monica and Jim and Betty Posz to the Ox Yoke restaurant again. While there, David accepted the position of Chapter Leader for Iowa. After another great meal we came back to the park and enjoyed another nice campfire. Our good friends Dave and Amy and their Heartland Camp dog Tucker visited us. It threatened rain all night but we finally went inside about 10 o'clock. It was a very good day for us. Tomorrow starts the official rally and Oktoberfest celebration here in Amana.