Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Escapees Chapter 21 Rally Days 3-5

On Sunday, several of us went to the Leonardo Da Vinci Traveling Exhibition at the Bluewater Casino. Most people know Da Vinci as a painter, but this exhibit included not only some of his paintings, but also several of his inventions.

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There were some interesting cog wheels.

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Da Vinci studied perpetual motion and proved that it couldn’t exist.

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He also explored various aspects of flight, including parasails and helicopters.

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Don and I drove through the casino’s RV park, but we didn’t like how close the RV sites are to each other, and the lack of good views of either mountains or the Colorado River, although there is a boat ramp at the end of the park.

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Later, our group gathered for a social hour and crafts. I showed some of my knitting projects, including a lapghan in progress (for Soldiers’ Angels), chemo caps that I’ll donate through the Escapees during Escapade in May to the local hospital, and some scarfs I’ll offer during the Boomers’ CARE auction in Quartzsite.

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Barb Lopes showed some of her beautiful quilt tops. Here’s my favorite.

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Barb also conducted a craft class for decorating sun visors. Here are the results of our efforts, and you can guess how much fun we had making them!

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Jan and Bill Mains had decorated the tables with colorful leis, Margarita glasses and seashells for our beach party taking place later.

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Don DeMent got into the spirit with his Hawaiian shirt and unique sunglasses. John Knoll wore his Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and hat for the occasion. And Jan showed off her curvy figure in a beach bikini!

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Carol Bezdeka put on her special muu-muu.

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And her hubby Tom showed off his beach towel.

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Karen’s outfit went well with hubby John’s.

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We had lots of fun even before the margaritas were poured!

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Even Don got out one of his Hawaiian shirts to put him in the party mood.

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We played beach ball bingo, and even though nobody at our table won, we all knew everyone’s name by playing it.

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Finally, we voted on a Beach King and Queen, and the winners were John Knoll and Jan Mains. They could hardly hold up those heavy trophies!

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Oh, yes, I forgot to take pictures of the food, but it was delicious. Pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans and cole slaw. Yummy!

On Monday, we had a pancake and sausage breakfast that turned out really good, in spite of confusion on the time, due to cell phone tendencies to catch towers in California, across the river and therefore an hour earlier than Arizona time. Several of us pitched in and got things cooking, a little late, but delicious nonetheless. Here’s Don cooking pancakes.

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And here are Dan and Barb Lopes, with Donna and Gene Struble, all enjoying their breakfast.

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Read more about it on Jan’s blog.

That afternoon, we had our traditional Polar Bear Party, with adult beverages made of Kahlua, Vodka, vanilla ice cream and ice, all blended together. Bruce Ratcliff is Polar Bear Mixmaster. His wife, Bunny is just visible on the left. We all enjoyed the drinks, including some who preferred the non-alcoholic version.

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Finally, today (Tuesday) we had an on-time breakfast followed by prize drawings. Here are the winners of the door prizes.

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Next was a special raffle of 3 Wal-Mart gift cards that netted over $300 raised to donate to CARE (our charity), resulted in Don winning the $100 card! Jan won the $25 card, and Betty Dawson won the $10 card.

During our final social hour this afternoon, held outside in the beautiful weather, the Jeopardy Tour answers were given to the participants. Four people won a trophy similar to the ones presented to the King and Queen, but Gene got a special prize for getting the most right answers, an alligator mask, which can also be worn as a visor.

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To finish the day, several of us went to a nearby steakhouse for dinner.

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Outside was a Wounded Warrior Windmill, where coins pitched into the pool would go to support wounded warriors. We emptied our pockets into the pool.

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It has been fun, friends, and we wish you safe travels till we meet again, some sooner than others.

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