Monday, March 15, 2010

March 15, 2009 Post

In This Post:

What’s New With Us: Kicking Back

Check Out: E-books now available as paperbacks

Of Interest: Gypsy Gathering Rally

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What’s New with Us:

Greetings from Yuma, AZ (again). We have just finished presenting a couple seminars at the Western Gypsy Gathering rally and our RV is now sitting on Joe and Joanne Annuzzio’s RV lot. The weather is warm and mild, our many friends surround us, the meals are great, and life is good. We will celebrate St. Patricks Day with our wannabe Irish friends and then move on to an RV park in Indio where we will meet even more friends.

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Check out the E-Books and RV Books pages on our website. Our four e-books are now also available as printed paperbacks. You have your choice of downloading them to your computer or ordering them in regular book form.

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Of Interest: Gypsy Gathering Rally

“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” – General Colin Powell quoting German Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke.

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” – from John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men.

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong” – Murphy’s Law

“Stuff happens” -- weary RVer.

All these quotes would apply to the early bird arrival day of Nick and Terry Russell’s Gypsy Gathering Rally in Yuma, AZ, inspite of their detailed plan. First, nature dumped Yuma’s annual ration of 5 inches of rain on the fairgrounds. Then, some of the early arrivals failed to follow the directions of the soaking wet parking crew. It didn’t help that some RVs from a previous rally failed to leave when they should have. The resulting confusion led to a backup of RVs inside and outside of the fairgrounds. Some RVers thought that yelling at the parking crew would clear things up, others simply pitched in and became part of the solution. Then Nick and Terry’s motorhome decided to not cooperate when it was time for it to be moved. Finally, just to cap off the day, Nick tripped and fell into a drainage ditch full of cold, muddy water. Talk about a day full of stuff happening!

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? The remaining days gave Nick and Terry the opportunity to show what they could do when it comes to planning, organizing and managing a rally. The days began with coffee and donuts and were filled with a variety of educational seminars (Vicki and I presented our RVing Alaska and Personal Security seminars). The evenings offered great entertainment and the vendor area had over 50 vendors selling RV related products and services. This is where I discover all those intriguing gadgets I didn’t know I needed. Finally, Terry demonstrated her extraordinary planning and management talents by distributing hot pizza to over 300 people in less than 15 minutes. Wow!

Were there glitches? Sure. But Nick and Terry and their great crew of dedicated volunteers worked them out and everyone had a great time. Most importantly, this remarkable couple will have learned from the mishaps and will put their knowledge into producing even greater rallies in the future. The “big” rallies could learn a lot from Nick and Terry Russell.

“When stuff happens, you have the opportunity to show what kind of stuff you are made of.” Joe Kieva, RVer

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