2010 04 05 RV-Dreams Pre-Rally

NOTE: You can get different perspectives on the rally by checking out the blogs on the side that have a ‘*’ at the beginning. These are blogs written by rally attendees.

We had a comfortable drive on Monday from Dreher Island to Longs, SC, the location of the RV-Dreams Rally. The temperatures were in the 80’s with cloudless skies.

We arrived at the Willow Tree RV Resort –link- around 2:30pm with easy check-in. I’m glad we have a $30 rally rate here because it would really blow our budget to be spending the standard $50 per night for the lakefront site we have.

The size of these lots is amazing. Our’s is bigger than any RV park we’ve been to before.

We are in site #1 which is closest to the public areas but still with a considerable amount of room and privacy.

There are cart paths everywhere including a 1 mile path around the lake.

Looking back at our site from the cart path

The path around the lake is a comfortable 1 mile walk.

Looking back at the compound from the far end of the lake.

Besides the Office/Store, there is a very nice laundry room, exercise room, playground banquet room, a really nice pool and a beach area. There’s volleyball courts, shuffleboard and horseshoe pits and I’m sure lots of other amenities I’ve missed.

The Beach

Docks with rental boats

Cabins

Swimming pool

Our site is inhabited by a lovely little couple of Eastern Bluebirds. They are smaller than the bluebirds we see in the Midwest but very bright and colorful.

I’m glad to share the site with them but not thrilled that they consider the jeep and motorhome their personal dump station!!

We were still setting up when Howard Payne stopped to say ‘hello’ and make sure we knew about the 4pm informal social hour planned at their rig.
Monday evening was a really good turn out for the social hour.

Tuesday evening was even bigger but I forgot my camera!

On Tuesday, Ken joined Howard and four other early-bird arrivals for a day of golf in North Myrtle Beach.

I used the time to change the bed, and catch up on 13 days worth of wash. I then compared our inventory of groceries with the planned rally agenda and figured out what we’d be carrying in for the chili cookoff and the potluck so that I could get groceries at the Longs Food Lion. I figure during the rally I’d rather not have to be making trips in to town if we don’t have to since there is a pretty full schedule through Saturday.

I realized that I’d become so dependent on the GPS that I hadn’t paid much attention to directions we turned on our way in and so ended up turning the wrong direction out of the park. That meant that I took about a 10 mile detour toward North Myrtle Beach before I realized the error of my ways…but a beautiful day for a drive in the jeep!!

The only part of the day that was a bit tense without having Ken there was trying to figure out how to get $100 worth of groceries in to our already full refrigerator and cabinets.
After the laundry and groceries were all put away, I got in my 37 minutes of Nordic Track while watching resuming my viewing of Tivo’d ‘Key Largo’. I love old movies and the 37 minutes flies by when watching these.

Ken’s timing was impeccable since I’d finished a long shower, took the dogs for a walk, and then finished packing things up for the evening social hour just as he came back in the door.

There were at least twice as many early birds for social hour on Tuesday night as Monday night. It was absolutely amazing how Linda Payne could introduce everyone by name as the circle continued to expand. Dee Walters is one of the people I talk to frequently on Facebook and RV-Dreams and it was so great to finally meet her in person.

Howard pulled together a group of guys to play Texas Hold’em but Ken decided he was not up to that much more thinking for this evening.

After the social hour broke up we invited Dee and Jim over to share our grill and we continued our conversations. Soon Linda dropped by to join us since the guys were in their card game. We talked to 10pm and then Linda helped Jim and Dee find their way back to their rig…pretty dark around here at night!!

Ken did this rally for me since it was something I really wanted to do but is now saying it was a great idea and he can see this is going to be a great group of people to spend some time with.
Wednesday the rally officially kicks off so I’ll try to update when I can. The ONLY downside we’ve found to Willow Tree Resort so far is that their wifi is AWFUL. It works maybe once in 10 attempts so number of times I post may be directly related to level of frustration I’m willing to withstand at that moment.

Hugs, C