Hi Everybody!

Just wanted to give everyone a recap of this years District Rally

First of all, Byron & I want to thank everyone who participated this year, and hope you all had a lot of fun – I know we did.  We want to thank you for all your patience with us as this was our first rally as directors.  It’s a lot more work than I ever considered.  Always before, we went to the rallys and had a lot of fun and enjoyed everyone’s company, but we never gave a lot of thought to how much work went into it.  Boy, we sure want to shout out a big “THANKS” to all the directors who came before us for all their dedication and hard work – WE REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!

I know there were some snafus with e-mails, and I apologize for that, I really did send everyone a schedule, my computer must have hated me that day.  Also I want to apologize to Barb Gleason.  She won the T-shirt contest and a free registration to the rally – but apparently she didn’t get that e-mail either.

So, we hope you all enjoyed yourselves despite all the problems.

On Friday we had our opening ceremonies and welcomed everyone to the rally.  We all got to visit with each other and had some ‘Skinny Cow’ ice cream sandwiches – which was good because it was way!!! hot down there!  We then had a ‘Show & Shine’ out in the parking lot and had 9 bikes participate.  (Jim really scrubbed his down!)  We also had a mascot contest (which I’m not sure everyone was aware of) and Sharen Carlile won that with her cute little dragonfly mascot that lives on her dashboard.  We didn’t give out any prizes for the bikes, we just wanted everyone to be able to show them off.  Then we were all off to dinner at whatever restaurant caught our fancy.

On Saturday we had a Poker Ride over to Zion National Park.  We had a lot of participation for that – we had about 18 bikes and 2 cars go along with us.  It was beautiful in the park!   We got a little rain, but few cared because it cooled us all down.  We rode through the park to Mt. Carmel Junction and then most of us came back through the park and ate in Springdale and did some shopping (it’s a great place for rocks huh Reenie!)  Some went South from Mt. Carmel Junction and through Kanab and back to St. George that way.

Then, just about as soon as we arrived back in St. George, we were back on the bikes for our ‘Casino Night’ ride down to Mesquite, Nevada for the dinner buffet.  We had great participation for that, and it was a nice leisurely ride down the Veteran’s Memorial Highway.  Some stayed to gamble, but no one came back a millionaire.  Darn!  Dot Maddert (hope I spelled her name right) formerly of Chapter H(?) joined us down there for dinner and got to reconnect with some old friends.  Byron & I and Jim & Colleen stayed a little late at the casino and had to drive back in the dark.  If any of you don’t know, Byron has a real hard time seeing in the dark, so it was kind of a ‘white knuckle’ drive back to St. George.  But everyone made it back in one piece, and we all had a good time.  I think we really confused the staff at the buffet, but they gave us some great service and treated us just right.

On  Sunday, we had closing ceremonies with a brief presentation from our new District Training Coordinator John Simonick – Welcome John to the District Staff  - and we will be having a lot more from him in the future.  We also gave away a lot of door prizes, some 50/25/25 money - $145.00, $75.00 & $75.00, and money for the Poker Hand winners – Paul Cooper took first place with three eights, Tom Kenney took second place with three threes, Lee Jackson took third place with two jacks and two sixes, and Rosie Jackson took the booby prize with a ten high nothing.

We did announce that next year our District Rally will be held in Park City – the date as yet to be determined – so we hope to see you all there!

Our District Poker Ride will be in Torrey on September 18, 19 & 20, and we will have flyers out for that when we get back from Wing Ding.  We took a vote at our District officers meeting, and that was the unanimous choice, so apparently everyone likes that ride.  Hopefully we won’t get snowed on this year!

Again, thanks to everyone who came and we hope you all had a good time.  We look forward to next year – it’s going to be great fun!

We would like to send out a big “THANK YOU” to three couples who came a long way to support us at our rally this year.  Bud & Dot Kapp from Arizona, Robert & Jane Sutherland from Arizona, and John & Gail Reynolds all the way from El Paso, Texas.  Thank you all for your help and support on our first District Rally as Directors, we really do appreciate it a lot!

Thanks to all our Utah District members for your help and support.  We think of you all and are trying to make this a fun and safe year for everyone.  If you have any wants, needs, comments, suggestions etc., please shoot us an e-mail – we love to hear from you!

Byron & Debbie Quick

Utah District Directors

goldwingsparky@comcast.net

801-652-9629