We have been patiently waiting for months for a new forums rally. This was the first rally that we have been able to attend with our own Airstream and it was named the “Can Opener Rally” and held the first full weekend in January 2007. So named because it was intended to open the camping season for the year and can, because we camp in “aluminum cans”.
The rally was held at Topsail Hill Reserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, FL. This was of course our first time camping at Topsail Hill. This is the nicest campground we have stayed at so far, with the possible exception of Ft. Wilderness. Each campsite here has its own “street light” and all the sites are paved and beautifully landscaped. When I made our reservation I chose a pull through since I knew we would be arriving late in the night and I wanted to be able to get in and settled as quickly as possible. Even though we were on a corner site, the landscaping gave us lots of privacy, but enough visibility to see the world, and other streamers, go by. I definitely will recommend this campground and we will definitely be back.
Saturday morning, I discovered that I had not packed a casual pair of shoes, so off to Wal-Mart for a cheap pair. I actually found a decent pair of sandals that I was quite pleased with. We had lunch at a nice restaurant and Becki wanted to stop by the outlet mall for a quick tour of the shops they had. They have a Disney Outlet! We decided to return on our way out the next day for some discounted Disney merchandise.
One of the forum members had to cancel at the last minute and couldn’t use his site and offered it to the group for whatever gathering we could use it for. So, it became the location for our pot-luck dinner. With such a large crowd, the site was full. We had quite a diverse crowd. We had streamers from New York, New Hampshire, Canada, Michigan, Missouri, Montanan, Miami, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, and as near by as Panama City and Santa Rosa Beach. Unfortunately, it was really neat to go on the “tour of homes” and see all the different models that were present. From late ’50’s models to brand new Front Bedroom Classic models. There were a total of three 30′ Safari Bunkhouses including ours. That is kind of interesting because there were so few of this plan made, but we were well represented at this great rally.
We really had a great time at this rally. We saw some old friends that we had met at previous rallies we had attended as day visitors and some we had only met on-line. It was a great bunch of folks and Becki and I decided this would be a regular on our schedule each year.
Sea shells by the sea shore. Henderson Beach, FL
The boys were bored with the shopping of course and a little bored with the potluck, but Jonathan made friends with one of the other boys and had fun playing with him. We took the boys out to Henderson Beach to play in the surf. It was way too cold and cloudy to actually go swimming, but the boys had fun building a sand castle and playing chase with the waves. We found that there was a lot of small shells washed up on the beach. That may have been from a storm earlier in the week or just may have been the season.
While the weekend was over cast, the new friends we made and existing friends we visited made it a bright and sunny weekend in the middle of winter. We’ll be back next year for sure.
Tags: Airstream
