Judi, a retired teacher from the Iowa Quad Cities, was one of the original people to buy a T@B when they first came out in 2004. She previously had a VW Camper Van and loved how much the T@B's interior reminded her of that. When we first met out at the Minden Rally, we both were amazed at how many other Midwest T@B owners we met, so we both commented that we should do a Midwest rally in the Fall.
We finally got serious about rally plans in late August. Judi suggested Starved Rock State Park in Illinois as it was about 1/2 way between both our homes and would also be fairly easy for others to get to being right off of I-80. So, we agreed on a weekend in mid-October and posted the rally information to the Yahoo T@B forum.
For the first week or so, no one signed up. We both started to think we'd be the only ones there! But, soon enough, folks started signing up--- so many, that we feared we might not find sites for every one. It all worked out in the end and the weekend was a delightful time for the 12 T@Bs, 1 Tent, and 24 T@Bbers who attended!
Starved Rock Lodge was having their Oktoberfest, so we planned our first night's dinner there...
The next night we had the traditional rally activities of a T@B Tour (where even some non-T@B folks from the campground came to take the tour!), followed by an enormous pot luck dinner, gift exchange, and campfire. Here are Millie and I showing off our tent during the tour (more rally pics are posted on the Shutterfly T@B Rally site)...
All and all, it was a terrific time with folks of all ages attending from as far away as Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. We all vowed to meet up again in the Spring for our next rally....so now it's just a matter of Judi and I finding a place, setting a date, and getting it all planned out again!
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