Sedalia: Our First Escapade

After our short (for us, anyway) visit in Kansas City, we pointed the moose east Saturday morning for the quick 90-minute drive to Sedalia. Our mission was to attend an Escapade, a rally hosted by the Escapees RV Club. Although this would be the Escapees' 52nd Escapade, it was our first! As Escapade "newbies", we looked forward to an exciting week.

We weren't alone when we arrived at the Missouri State Fairgrounds. The awesome Escapade parking team was making quick work of taking care of new arrivals.

When we checked in, we immediately saw a familiar face! Fellow fulltimer John escorted us to our spot between buddies Mark and Dortha and Keith and Donna. Thanks for the outstanding directions, John!

John's lovely wife Bridget arrived moments after we arrived. It's been too long since we've seen these two. It was great to see them again. With almost 600 rigs to park in just a few days, John and Bridget and their team were on the run.

With more than 1,000 attendees at this year's rally, we were looking forward to seeing lots of friends, old and new. Cathy and Steve arrived Sunday. Although it was a busy week for us all, we made time to get together with these special folks. It was great to be with them again. We're looking forward to spending some quality time with them this Fall in Arkansas and Kansas City.

The Escapade provided a wonderful opportunity for us to meet several "virtual" friends for the first time. Sam and Donna hosted a happy hour, which provided a great chance for several fellow bloggers to meet the faces behind their words and pictures. It was great to meet them...

...and their dog Riggins, too! Like many blogger dogs, "Riggs" is a celebrity of sorts in the RVing blogging world. (And, he's a nudist, too!)

We've been wanting to meet fellow fulltimers Angela and Kenny for a long while. It was such a pleasure to finally meet them. These two are based in Kansas City for now. So, we look forward to getting together again when we're in our old hometown.

We enjoyed meeting fellow fulltimers Len and Phyllis, who were lucky winners this week. They turned a free oil change into a major investment in new tires. The Sedalia Chamber of Commerce thanks you!

We also had the great pleasure of meeting Facebook friends and fellow fulltimers Sylvia and Glenn. Glenn missed the pooch parade. But, if you look carefully, you'll find him in another photo.

It's been nearly two years since we met Ken, Cindy and their pups in Tennessee. It was great to catch up with them, too!

The Escapade also provided us a chance to meet virtual friends Ginger and Jesse. I didn't get a picture of the two of them, but I tried my best to get a shot of their "boys". Nice to meet y'all!

Besides being attendees at our first Escapade, we had a couple of jobs to do. My big job on the Escapade staff was a photographer. During the week, I snapped nearly 1,000 pictures of Escapees....

Opening...

...Saluting...

...Parading...

...Cooking (And, believe me there was LOTS of eating!)...

...Crafting...

...Cheering...

...Changing (Thanks so much!)...

...Dog Walking...

...and Riding...

...Hula-ing (Hey Marcia and Donna!!)...

....Pickin'...

...and Grinning...

...Weighing...

...and Winning!

And, of course, there was lots of that thing Escapees do best: Hugging!

But, sometimes those happy Escapees were going every which way! (Look! Just behind the man bending over in the lower right corner. There's Glenn! And, Sylvia, too!)

Amongst all that fun, there were many seminars where teachers were teaching...

...and attendees were learning.

At a very interesting session on Geocaching the leader passed around this itty bitty cache container. (It's sitting on my knee.) Isn't it cute? We may need to hide a few of these!

The other job we had this week was leading our session on "The Myths of Fulltime RVing". (Thanks Sam and Donna for sharing this pic.) We had fun with a great group of attendees that were so engaged and asked great questions. We especially loved the laughter. Thanks!

As an Escapade photographer, of course I had to take photos of our wonderful audience. This is just a few of the smiling faces we had in our session. They were the best!

After all that learning, every good Escapee needs to be entertained. As an official photographer I had the privilege of going back stage before the Sunday night performance of Yakov Smirnoff. Here's the star with his son, wife, Escapade Assistant Directors Wallace and Wanda Lewis, and our friends Escapade Directors Molly and Bob Pinner.

Yakov brought a bit of his Branson show to Sedalia. He had everyone laughing.

Monday night's entertainer was straight from Branson, as well. Talented tenor George Dyer entertained and involved the audience during his spirited performance.

These folks look like they're playing, but don't let that fool you. The Escapade staff of Norm and Mary Scherer, Bob and Molly, Wallace and Wanda, and Mark and Dortha Hall worked hard to make sure the week went off without a hitch. 

Who is this cute little devil? It's Escapees Co-Founder Kay Peterson raising money for CARE, the Escapees Adult Day Care Center in Livingston, during the first annual(?) Chili Cookoff.

A week of sharing, caring, fun and food all came to an end last night with the Escapade's Closing Ceremonies. After an awesome week, we have just one thing to say: "That's a wrap!"