RE: WELCOME Home Everyone

Surfcal · Sep 28, 2003, 07:05 PM

Well, needless to say that my thoughts were with you all during the rally. I called in a couple of times to get some updates, but there s nothing lke being there. So, I hope to hear the Rabble Rousing stories and good times from everyone.

Im not usually in this position of trying to live the rallies vicariously through stories for I normally attend them, but this time, the tables are turned. But, in a small way, I hope that the Nick-Neff-Cough Documentary was a sliver of my presence and made some of you smile as we enter our second year of camping, fellowship and hilarity.

I await everyone s stories.

Surfcal

P.S. I am also glad that Dave Newhouse made it and his presence was such a big hit. I thank Dave for playing along with the surprise and keeping his attendance secret until the rally. I think it s pretty special that on our Inaugural Rally, the founder of PUT, the big Kahuna made an appearance and now he knows just how cool and fun our lil group is. It s a cult!

Also, for those who want a copy of the NNC Documentary, please let me know and I will get one out to you. It might take a week or so because tomorrow, Tuesday, I will be out of town for another week.

SactoCampers · Jun 22, 2003, 10:05 PM

SurfcalRay,

I don t have time right now to give my full account of the rally, but will say that we had a great time and you were definitely missed. However, your documentary was GREAT! Really a kick. Hopefully you checked your voicemail! [

]

Red neff Barchetta · Jun 22, 2003, 10:14 PM

SurfcalWe are home, clean, and unpacked. We decided to head home a day early as a very large job at work looms ahead and I would have worried about it all day tomorrow by not being here. As well as the fact that we will be camping again Friday night.

Whew! What a BIG rally!
I hope I met everyone at least one time, but I m not sure.
It was pretty cool to see " Rally Alley" s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out as far as the eye could see! It was also pretty neat to be a part of something that basically took over the whole place. Wonderful people and amazing kids! I figured it would be this way, but I m still bummed I couldn t visit with each and every person a lot more.
I hope those of you who were at the rally for the first time make it to other rally s.
This was so large that I m afraid you didn t feel the togetherness that " regular" rally s produce.
Well, other than poor old Ab Diver (who I didn t get any time with), everyone else I think enjoyed the switch from ice cream to Gack making. If all of the kids at our site were any indication, it seemed to be a big success! A special thank you from Amy to SCCS/Carrie & Scott for their assistance (Carrie is a pro at Gack now whether she likes it or not) and to 6Quigs/Kevin for the life-saving E-Z-Up shade canopy (I ll be buying one tomorrow)! In fact, all of the activities were wonderful from the piniata at TMM s site to the water fight at Clueless site.
I absolutely enjoyed everyone s company, but there are simply too many to mention.

Ray -
You were missed mightly, but your video contribution was terrific! The music backing tracks were excellent as was dear Rita s giggle (or is that " haha" ) attack. In true NNC form, the slide show never materialized, lol. Maybe we ll get to see all 700 slides (!) some other time. Thank you for putting the NNC movie together!! I d be happy to send you some $ for a copy btw.
I wore your company t-shirt and was the envy of the entire cg (except SammySlave who wore his)!

Dave/PUT -
What a great and wonderful surprise to have you fly all the way out to join our rally!! I for one truly appreciate the fact that you would make the trek across the country to join our silly little camping group! I really enjoyed chatting with you Thursday afternoon and on through the w/e. Also, please pass a thank you along to the vendors who sent out raffle prizes. That was really nice of them to do.
I hope you enjoyed being a part of something way out west that you were instrumental in making happen. Without PUT, there would be no NNC. It was also nice to show you all the PU " must have s" that I have purchased from the PUT store like the Socket Jenie, Fantastic Fan, Stop-N-Chock, and even the PopupGizmo s (indirectly as they might be). I hope your flight home was uneventful and that you have a great time at the eastern rally!

And finally, the Wagonmaster of Wagonmaster s, the fearless leader, our very own Brian -
Great rally my friend! You put on a heck of a party! Excellent choice in cg! Easy to get to and as far as I could tell, the sites were all nice. The pool was really appreciated by this family and the ampitheater was perfect for such an enormous group! We even had our very own mini-convoy on Thursday. It somehow caused more anticipation arriving with another PU. A rally this large I m sure is pretty mind boggling to put together, but you pulled it off beautifully! Nice job!!!!!!

SCCS · Jun 22, 2003, 10:18 PM

SurfcalRay,

We sure missed you at the rally.Their were some of us that though you would be skydiving in or showing up just before the potluck like you usually do.GREAT VIDEO by the way.I ll have give you full detail s later.Hope to see you in the near future.

Many thanks to all that put something on for the kids (6 quigs- cookie decorating,clueless-waterballon toss,tmm-pinata breakup,neff-gack making and even something for the older kid s oldmoose-dutchoven demo.) Thank s sacto for the wagonmastering of this rally.You did alot of work on this and it turned out to be great.Glad to see all the regular s again.It sure was nice to get to know the new families, hope we meet with everyone.I have some picture s I will post later.

Many Thank s to Dave(PUT) for coming out to the rally.It was a pleasure meeting and talking to you.

The Memory Maker · Jun 23, 2003, 01:06 AM

SurfcalHello all-
Got home around noon, had plenty of time to clean up and put our gear away.
What a MEGA RALLY!
I m working on the pics (that I ll put up on webshots soon) and in the group shot, there are at least 105 poeple!

I only wish that I got to meet and talk to all of them. The people that I did meet, I can now associate a face with a username(except in the case of CWB)[

]. What an amazing group of people we have!
Surfcal- you were missed..[

]
Dave-what a great suprise to have you here at our " little" gathering![

]
Brian-Thank you fo all of your hard work in " put" ting this rally together![

]
I ll post more later
TMM
Scott & Genevieve

6Quigs · Jun 23, 2003, 02:42 AM

SurfcalWell,
We?re home too,
And all kids are accounted for!

In order to make Surf-cough not feel so bad for missing the rally,
I was going to tell him how horrible it was.

The campground was O.K., I suppose,
There was something strange about the restrooms.
Restrooms in campgrounds are not supposed to be that clean.
They must be trying to hide something.
The pond I think was a toxic dump,
All the ducks had funny blue bills,
And they turned into bull frogs at nighttime.
The Pokey Ville Market across the street had no Galliano for Harvey Wall-bangers,
And didn?t even stock the latest Harry Potter Book.

As for the activities.
The Ice Cream they made, was like rubber,
None of the kids would eat it,
All they would do was play with it.
The Memory Maker has a really nice decoration hanging from a tree on their site, and all the kids took a stick and beat the C**** out of it.
Poor Madelyn spent all morning filling balloons with water,
And the kids,
Still on a high from the decoration beating,
Attacked her with the balloons.
Luckily Neff was on hand with a water hose to quell the rioting kids,
Who then came up to our site and looted all our cookies.

Then when it was time for the potluck, we had to wait for an hour or two, while TMM Scott and TOS Scott fought over who was going to take the official group photo,
As we all sat on the hot steps, in the blistering sun,
As our food sat there going cold.
Luckily they used both cameras, but by the time we got to eat,
Everyone was so hungry, we ran out of food.

Just as well your friends Colin & Chelsea never showed up,
As there was this strange guy parked in their site.
He was like you, Surfcal,
A guy, camping by himself,
Slept in the bed of his pickup,
Wandered around from site to site,
Like he owned the place,
Scrounging food and drink from whoever would feed him.

Then there was no campfires allowed,
So we all had to consume large quantities of alcohol just to keep warm, and to help us forget what a miserable time we were all having.

Just joking everyone,
I see Neff has already spilled the beans on what a super time was had by everyone.
What an amazing get together.
What an amazing bunch of people.
It was really nice to get to visit with nearly everyone
Put faces to the names of those I had never met,
And also meet old acquaintances again.
To get to see the insides of so many campers, and their setups, share ideas and modifications.
I just need to keep Margaret away from the Hybrids.

Besides missing Surfcal,
Y-Guy & TeacherMom are also someone we all missed,
As they were very instrumental in getting NNC of the ground.
Great to See Robucko popping in on Sunday morning to say hello.

What a surprise to have Dave Newhouse pop up in our rally.
And get to see that we are really just a fun bunch of people who just love to get together, eat, drink and laugh.
Thanks again for visiting us Dave, and for bringing all the surprises from your suppliers.

Thanks again to those who made the extra effort to make this Rally special.
Me & Mrs. Neff for the Gack, (or the rubber ice-cream),
Oldmoose for the dutch oven seminar. Looks like we will be cooking in a dutch oven before the week is over.
Madlyn for being such a great sport filling the water balloons, and then letting the kids toss them at her.
Mr & Mrs Memory Maker for filling the Pinata, and hosting the event.
Scott/Scott or TOS for all the cool photos he took.
IS there anyone he did not take a picture of??
~Patricia~ for the $20 Microwave, which my 2 year old promptly put a candy bar into with a foil wrapper and turned it on.
I guess I need to keep it on a higher shelf.

Finally Thank you Brian/Sactocampers for being the wagonmaster for this rally.
You really raised the bar on what one person can do in organising a rally.
Great choice on a campground. It was perfect for our needs.

All 6 of the Quigs had a great time.
The kids are all exhausted, having slept most of the way home.
The dirty laundry is being done, and we are heading off again tomorrow for another week of camping.

Hybrid Holly · Jun 23, 2003, 10:32 AM

SurfcalSurfcal, we missed you man!
Brian, great job, great campground!
It was great to see everyone and to meet all the so-cal people.
The kids were all great...as usual...
The food was great...especially with the addition of the moose creations.

It will be hard for me to get by without seeing you all until September.....

SactoCampers · Jun 23, 2003, 11:13 AM

SurfcalSactocampers checking in here for a second time....[

]

As I said before, we had a great time!

Man, what a big rally. I knew it would be big, but when you looked down rally alley, there were popups further than the eye could see. And it was such a long distance over to Nick s site, I didn t even get to imbibe in his home brew. But to my defense, I did come over at 4:00 for the home brewing demonstration, but you hadn t returned. Fortunately, Sierrapopuppers had helped herself to the brew and gave me a sample. It was good, but a LONG walk over to your site, so fortunately I had backup, and Red neff to mooch some Sierra from.

I arrived early Thursday in the mini-convoy with Red neff Barchetta...met them at the park & ride lot and we cruised on up together. It was nice for Mrs. Sacto to finally meet Mrs. Red neff. She s really nice and has a good sense of humor too, especially after Sactodoggie shook his soggy coat on the Barchetta fam! [

]. Uh, sorry about that! [8D].

So as me and the Red neff s arrive, we find there s already someone there. SCCS, a family I hadn t previously met and would be our next door neighbor. Very nice family with the sweetest little 8 (soon to be 9)-year-old daughter you could ever hope to come across. She was so good with little Sactotoddler playing with her and keeping her company. Together they painted, looked for the ducks, swam, played, and just hung out together. What really touched Mrs. Sacto s heart was when she asked if she could buy our little girl a little squirt ducky from the store with " her own money." That was the sweetest thing. Sactotoddler had stars in her eyes and got excited whenever your girl was outside. She really looked up to her both literally and figuratively. We keep asking Sactotoddler if she had fun with her and her eyes light up when she says " yeah!" . I can t say enough about how kind and gentle she was with our little girl. Sactotoddler really likes the squirt ducky too. She had a bath last night and she giggles when I squirt her with it. I think it tickles her. [

]

Okay, someone near our site snores! SCCS, TMM? Which one of you was it?? [

][

]. Just kidding! I could only hear it when I was already awake. [8D]

It was really neat meeting new members. As the wagonmaster, I was fortunate enough to meet everybody because I had to collect payment! Sierrapopuppers, Stimpy & Spongebob, Abbear, CamnFools, Tow_Rod, RTurner. We look forward to future rallies with you! I still can t figure out what game Spongebob and your son were playing, but it looked like a lot of fun.

It was also neat meeting members I hadn t previously met, like Clueless in Sacramento, Duanefamily, and Champ 521 (with Max). Three really nice families.

And, of course, all of the Southern California families deserve and enormous thank you for making the trip all the way up to the rally. That was a big drive and we were so glad you came. Cottonwooder, my pal here on the boards, you were exactly as I had imagined! [

] I hope you had a great time assume you were able to get your awning raised! [

]. Oldmoose/Young Moosette, what a small world that you and my wife have mutual friends and likely previously met 10-15 years ago! Jacqui, it was so nice visiting with you at our site and hopefully you didn t barbeque too much in the sun. We look forward to more northern California rallies once you move up here. Scott/Scott, I finally got the hug I ve been wanting. It s cool for men to hug, and I m glad I got one. I even asked, and received, a second one at the potluck! I hope your family had a good time. I didn t get a chance to talk with them but it seemed like they were having fun and they definitely had cute kids.

A special thank you to Dave from PopUpTimes for making it out to our little rally. A real pleasure it was to finally meet the man behind the magazine and website. It s quite a commitment to fly cross-country for a few nights, but it meant a lot to all of us for you to be there! It was a neat surprise to those who weren t in on it. And big thanks also for the door prizes!

Another special thank you to all of those who held activities for the kids, you are really something else. Mrs. Red neff for her gack-making workshop, Madlyn (Clueless in Sacramento) for that super-fun waterballon toss and attack. What a great sport you were letting the kids throw the balloons at you! and a really clever scheme to get the balloons picked up [

]. Mrs. 6 Quigs, with the cookie decorating activity. I can t remember which kid (Cottonwooder s daughter?) made the cookie mountain with the toppings but I feel sorry for the dad who had to eat it! But eat it I m sure he did because that s what parents do when their kids make something like that for them! I know SCCS ate a big one too! What a neat activity that was. Also thanks to The Memory Makers for the pinata breakup, the kids really seemed to enjoy that. Oldmoose s dutch oven seminar and cooking appeared to be a big hit, and of course, Otter s sno cones were the perfect refreshment on a warm summer day. Finally, Sammyslave as usual opened his heart and filled our stomachs with hot dogs for everyone on Saturday, accompanied by the best french fries I ve ever had courtesy of Ralph (Clueless in Sacramento s husband).

A big thanks is in order to Surfcal for his NNC documentary. What a neat production that I think captures the essence of this group as we grow. Rita s laugh is Hollywood-quality and I had no idea one man can setup half-a-popup in 30 seconds! Another thanks for TMM Scott for the hard work he put into the slide show. I know he worked hard because I could see him at his picnic table working on it. So when you convert it to powerpoint, I will send you the rally spreadsheet with all the e-mails so you can send it out. We really look forward to seeing it.

This is going long and I can t single out everyone but be it known that I consider this rally to be a big success. It s not the wagonmaster that makes these rallies a lot of fun, it s the people who attend. It s the kids riding around screaming their heads off in delight. It s the parents talking in the street, getting to know each other. It s the potluck dinner, where I had some unbelievable chili, jambalaya, and childe verde all at the same time (who made those dishes anyway?). It s the group wine tasting. It s watching the dogs sniff and chase each other. It s the excitement in people s eyes as they roll up to the campsite and see 35 other families. It s putting names with faces. It s looking down Rally Alley and seeing endless popups. It s wishing you had another day because they just passed by so fast talking to everybody. Those are the things that make for great rallies. Whether we have 6 families at a rally or 36, the feeling of togetherness and comaraderie is always in the air. It just feels good to camp with this group.

So I hope everybody had a good time. I think the 49er Village was a suitable facility, especially for the kids. Sorry folks, about the bullfrogs. I had no idea. I m also not sure what was going on with the Aqua-chem pond. I never found out, but I guess the duck liked it. Rumor is that some folks were talking about having it there again next year, which means it must have been pretty good for this kind of rally. We were very fortunate to have the mild weather, so I am thankful for THAT. I probably would have been run out of town if it were in the 100s! [

].

Anyway, I know I had a great time and only wish I had an extra day.....

Used 2B PopUPTimes · Jun 23, 2003, 11:39 AM

SurfcalI had a smooth and uneventful flight home and claimed into bed at 1:30 this morning, boy what a good feeling.
I had a Great Time. My pants are a little tighter because I didn t know when to stop eating and I owe Larry a bottle of gin.

Your group has an awesome spirit and you all shared it with me.
Thank you for your wonderful and generous hospitality.
Dave

champ521 · Jun 23, 2003, 12:00 PM

SurfcalWe were home by 1:30 on Sunday and after we all got cleaned up, it was nap time. We were so exhausted from all the fun, food and drink. Good thing we only had to drive 45 minutes. The activities were a huge hit. Thanks to Brian for putting this on, Oldmoose for the signs & seminar (I love the way that other campers out for a walk stopped for the class), Ray for the video, TOS for the slide show (I ll be locking my door at nap time from now on), Sammyslave for the cooking, and everyone who put on an activity for the kids.

I got a kick out of watching ours and OC campers girls catch frogs and crawdads and then when they tried to show them to the boys, the boys ran screaming like girls.

Even though there just wasn t enough time to meet everyone, it was great to make some new friends and it s always great to see the " old" ones. A big thanks to Dave/PUT for coming all the way out for this. With out him we wouldn t doing this.

The Memory Maker · Jun 23, 2003, 02:50 PM

SactoCampers

QuoteORIGINAL: SactoCampers
Okay, someone near our site snores! SCCS, TMM? Which one of you was it?? [][]. Just kidding! I could only hear it when I was already awake. [8D]

Brian sorry about that-
The sounds of Baby Mozart really knocks me out!
J/K!

I ve got the pics from the rally up on my webshots site!!

6Quigs · Jun 23, 2003, 03:44 PM

The Memory MakerHe He He,
I wrote more than Sacto did[

]

I had 4 kids to look after, and I m not called Scott, so didn t take that many photos, but here s the few that I did take

http://community.webshots.com/user/quigsniagara

Red neff Barchetta · Jun 23, 2003, 05:27 PM

SurfcalGreat pic s. Kevin & Scott/TMM!
Thanks for sharing.

After the %$*&%$!! morning I had with a certain employee, I sure wished I was still camping.

Can t wait to read more accounts (& see more pic s.) and sure hope some first timer s chime in soon. Then Nick can retire this baby and we can move forward towards the next one.

Bought an E-Z-Up this morning (thanks again Kevin!) amongst all the chaos around here. What a great toy, er I mean need! It s already loaded in the PU awaiting Friday s trip.

Ca-girl · Jun 23, 2003, 05:37 PM

SurfcalWe, too, made it home in one piece (although we passed someone not so lucky...it looked like there weren t any injuries, but there was a trailer and TV that had gone off the road and weren t getting " on the road again" any time soon) It looks like most of the key points of the weekend have been covered already, but I have a couple more to add:

[ul]

The 45 foot motorhome that s nicer than my HOUSE
The super-nice people IN the 45 foot motorhome that let us all tramp through and gawk and gave us a show on their way out.
Trick-or-Drinking
Moose s Key Lime Martinis
Food, Food, Food, Food, Food, and then Dessert
Pop-Up Times Dave (What a nice guy!)
The incredible luck to find a big screen TV to watch Ray s video....I was wondering how we were going to get 105+ people around a 13" TV!
Finally finding Conner [][]
Finally meeting some SCCampers
Tofu Hot Dogs [: (]
Ralph and Madlyn s French Fries (worthy of a second mention[])
Madlyn s Margarita Stroller
Watching Pop-up after Pop-up coming down the road on Saturday and knowing ALL OF THEM! [][8D]
Larry s Hot Dog Vending stand.
Not knowing exactly where my kids were most of the time, and being able to be okay with that.
Elaine and I continuing our tradition of Spades Excellence []
Having such an obviously great time that perfect strangers joined right in!
New Faces
Old Friends

Clueless in Sacremento · Jun 23, 2003, 07:33 PM

SurfcalA GREAT TIME WAS HAD BY CLUELESS AND FAMILY. We arrived home about 10:00 last night. We just had to stay for one more potluck and it was great having the kids sleep all the way home. Ralph made a couple more batches of french fries (Hey -I didn?t just marry the guy for his good looks, great personality and intelligence!!!) and the rest of the food was delicious as usual. Regarding the water balloon bombardment - I don?t know if you could tell, but I actually think I had more fun than the kids.

Camping with NNC is so amazing. I always leave grinning from ear to ear and hardly believing my luck at meeting even more wonderful people. Sierrapopuppers and CampNFools were especially kind enough to let me gab their ears off. While SCCS? DD won the heart of Sactotoddler, Young Moosette is my DD?s favorite new camping friend. We are just going to have to figure out a way to get to some Southern California rally?s so we can visit more often.

There was an impromptu meeting of the HaHa Sisterhood in Sammyslave?s pop-up on Sunday afternoon. The refreshments had been flowing freely before I got there and I arrived during the lively discussion on the art of Elaine?s balloon animals. It ranked right up there with a discussion on cameras at the chat room one evening. The things I learn camping with this group I?ll never learn anywhere else.

The memories of this weekend will be cherished forever. Thank you everyone!

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