Boot Camp Graduation

Today is the final day of "Boot Camp". Started out with another (good) free breakfast at 7:30AM. We again had an hour to eat and socialize before our class started at 8:30. Mark Nemeth taught us essentials of hooking up a travel trailer, 5th wheel and lastly a tow vehicle to a motor home. Informative, but not something we really needed.

That was followed by the "Panel of Experts", which was a Q&A session to get our unanswered questions answered. That was it. We then filed out of the room where we picked up our Boot Camp Graduate badges. We'll have to get "Too Crazy Ladies" to give us hangers to add them to our Escapee name badges.

We (thankfully) got out of class 45 minutes early. We took the time to get a bite to eat, turn in our vouchers (so we could be eligible for door prizes), and a few other tasks in the vender area.

We then headed over for a small church service put on by the Christian BOF. Nice little service. We're glad it was made available to us, as we weren't able to get out to a local church service due to our attending Boot Camp this morning.

Services over, we rushed back over to central hall for our "First Timers Orientation" to an Escapade.

It started with one of the founders of Escapees, Kay Peterson told us the story of how she met her husband and co-founder of Escapees, Joe Peterson. It was a meeting that almost didn't happen, which would have meant no Escapees, so we're very grateful that it did take place. This was followed by Angie Carr, Kay and Joe Peterson's granddaughter and Executive Director of the Escapees RV Club. She took the time to tell us a little about Escapees, the Escapade, and welcome us all to our first Escapade.

After a short break, the Main Opening Ceremony took place. We were all introduced to Kay and Joe Peterson, Cathie and Bud Carr (Kay and Joe's daughter and son-in-law), and many others who perform administrative duties in Escapees. They told us a little about Escapees and their part in it.

We were then introduced to the keynote speaker, Craig Zablocki. He is a well known spokesman who has performed before the US President and was the first person to address those involved in the Columbine school shooting. He used positive humor to teach us to live in the moment and not to take ourselves so seriously.

He had us do different things to get us to loosen up and not worry what others think about us.

He even picked a guy out of the audience to do a demonstration on teamwork and living in the moment. It was hilarious!

We had a few hours before the evening events, so we went home for dinner as well as some watermelon our neighbors, Jeannie and Jerry, invited us to share with them. It was great!

Bellies full, we headed back over for door prizes (gotta be present to win) followed by an Ice Cream Social (free popsicles for everyone). We socialized a bit and then were entertained by the Chugwater Band. Good country band.

We didn't win any prizes, but we went home, a good long day completed.