Fellow Hoosiers,

I'm involved with coordination of a rally for July 25-27 in Gatlinburg Tennessee.

It started with a bunch of Excursion owners getting together and has grown to a bunch of FORD OWNERS...so I'd like to extend an open invite to my fellow Hoosiers.

I'm up in Fort Wayne and I plan to pull my camper down to Gatlinburg on Thursday July 24 and returning to Fort Wayne on Friday August 1. If anyone is intersted in joining the FORD FUN...check out the link for all the details or PM me with questions.

While we are 'billing' it as a SD platform rally...it is obviously a PUBLIC campground...and to be quite honest...I would rather have a camp ground FULL of BLUE OVALS no matter what platform than some girlie man bowties flitting thru the place!

If you do decide to join us...PM me with your info so I can get your personal info for planning events and such...

Hope some of you can join in the fun.

The details are located in this thread. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...-up-today.html

Joe.

 

Double bonus - if you ride on two wheels carry your bike down to Tennessee and ride The Dragon!

 

My avatar was taken while I was ON THE DRAGON!...

 

New thread for Gatlinburg rally information.

The other thread got WAY to big and needed to be closed. We will track rally information in the following thread

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...-up-today.html

Hope to see you folks there!

joe.

 

Well the time has finally arrived. The shirts are DONE DONE DONE!!!

You can ORDER from the following link/page.

Click HERE to order

Jon has set up that link to collect orders from. You do NOT have to enter any credit card information at that site. Once you place your order, Jon will total up your order and send a PayPal invoice to your email address for you to pay. This way it is very secure for everyone.

Kids sizes thru 5XL are available in both crew or V-neck. All shirts are WHITE in color with a common graphic on the back. You have a choice of 3 different fronts. Images of the graphics are shown on the web site. Shipping is also available if you want yours earlier than the rally but that is an additional cost.

As you will see when you go to the site, we have settled on ONE PRICE for ALL shirts. It was easier that way. Any extra $$$ will be used for the rally. Things like meat for a cookout, ice cream social and the like. But the message is that any extra after all the shirts are ordered and paid for will be funneled right back into the rally. No profit is being made by any of us as that was not the intent of this rally.

I want to personally thank Jon for all his help in making this happen. He has put in many hours of his own time finalizing the design for the shirts as well as generating the order form. He has further agreed to personally transport the shirts from the printer to the rally as well as arrange all the shipping of shirts that folks want early…So a BIG THANK YOU to him!!!

I will be leaving on our vacation on Friday June 6th and will be mostly unavailable until June 24th I will have my laptop with me and have sporadic WIFI in campgrounds along the way…but Jon is a member here on RV.net under the screen name kc9aej so I’d ask that you contact Jon directly from here or thru the order site as my time will be away from the site for a while.
We hope you folks like the shirts as much as we do.

Shirts can be ordered by anyone if desired. You do not have to attend the rally to purchase shirts. Although we’d love to see EVERYONE at the rally in July.

Joe

 

Okay...less than one month to the rally...there's still time to join the fun!!!

Here's the proposed agenda for the rally.

Since 95% of the folks will actually be there on Friday 7/25 we figured we'd start the rally stuff off that day.

This agenda by no means is mandatory. Each family is totally free to partake in whatever they wish or nothing at all but wanted to put together some stuff that folks may want to join in on as a group.

For a couple of the activities, if we get a large enough group to attend...we can get a group discount. Therefore we ask that as you look over the agenda if you could reply (via PM) with your intentions on joining the group or not so we can try and get some pricing idea for everyone as to the overall costs. If you and your family plan on joining, please respond with which activity and how many in your family (and ages of kids).

Also if anyone has a portable projector that we could hook to a laptop and show a movie at night for the kids...let us know as we do not have one (just have to clear it with the campground hosts first if we get one!).

If anyone has a corn hole game board (one hole bean bag toss), horse shoes or volleyball bring it along. We have Bocce and hillbilly horseshoes that we will bring.

For the omelet egg boil...if you have never done this...you need to at least join that event.

We are still working on a pamphlet of other area activities and we've got some area information packages coming that we'll distribute in the welcome packages when you get to the rally...there certainly is much to do in this area!!!

This rally is EVERYONE'S rally...this agenda is just a suggestion to get some group outings going...nothing more.

Again, please respond with your intentions so we can plan for group discounts.

Okay here's the agenda:

Rumble in the Smokies
Ford Truck Rally
July 25-July 28, 2008


Friday, July 25th-

Time T/B/D-Dollywood Splash Country Waterpark-Pigeon Forge (see website) Dollywood's Splash Country Water Adventure Theme Park in Pigeon Forge, TN

Adults-$42.35
Children (4-11)-$36.80
Children (3 and under)-Free
Seniors (60 and over)-$40.15

**If 15 or more persons attend we can receive additional discounts

***We have another possible option for discounted tickets but we must know in advance how many are interested in attending.

****If interested see website for Splash Country and Amusement Park Combo tickets.

7:30 pm-Meet & Greet wine tasting-Please bring one bottle of
your favorite wine and a block of cheese (please slice).
We’ll supply the paper products and crackers.

7:30 pm-Kid’s activity-T/B/D

Saturday, July 26th-

3:00 pm-Go-Kart racing (PSD vs V10) or
Hillbilly golf-Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge (group decides).

Golf- $9/adults, $7/children-group discount if 20 or more participate.

The Go-Kart costs to be determined once we decide which where we will be going-they all differ in pricing and time on track.

6:00 pm-Potluck dinner-please bring a main dish entrée, side
dish, salad or finger dessert to share. Don’t forget to
bring dishes and utensils for your family!

7:00 pm-Ice cream social-please bring a fun topping to share
(syrup, sprinkles, candy, nuts, fruit, etc.)-we will supply
the paper products, cones and the ice cream.

7:30 pm-Kid’s activity-T/B/D


Sunday, July 27th-

8:30 am-Omelet Ziploc bag boil-please bring a filling or topping
for our omelets (cheese, cooked meat, veggies, salsa,
etc.). We will supply the eggs, and Ziploc bags, Don’t
forget to bring dishes and utensils for your family!

Time T/B/D (late morning)-Horseback riding-Gatlinburg
For more information go to Guided Horseback Riding - Gatlinburg TN - Located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Must be 5 years and older to ride.

1 hour (4 miles)-$20 per person
2 hours (8 miles)-$38 per person

Monday, July 28th-

Time T/B/D (early evening)-Dixie Stampede Dinner Show-
Pigeon Forge. Price includes admission, 4 course dinner,
dinner show and entertainment in the Carriage Room prior to
the show.

For more information go to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner and Shows - You've Never Had Dinner Like This!. Pricing is based on preferred versus regular seating. We can receive a group discount if 20 or more persons attend.

Adults (12 years and up)-$40 to $45 per person
Children (3-11 years)-$23.00 to $28.00 per person
Children (3 and under) are free if they sit on a parent’s lap and eat from their plate.

**If your family would like to attend this at a different time
during your stay-please see me for discount coupons!

 

is anyone going to be there before july 25th. we will be in cherokee n.c.
camping,but we are pulling home on the 25th. i will go to the camp ground if there will be any one there before the 25th of july.if not you all have a great time.

 

Right now there will be many folks pulling in on the 24th...myself included.

I will arrive mid to late afternoon as I will be pulling ~450 miles from Fort Wayne that day.

If you were to stop in later in the day on the 24th...there should be numerous Excursions in the park.

Mine is a Toreador Red Ex and I have a JayFlight double slide TT...not sure what site I'll be in...but I have a large flag pole with the US flag and a Jolly Roger Flag on it...hard to miss actually

PM me an email address and I'll add you to the email when I send out my cell phone number so if you wanted to call you can...

We should have a nice campfire party on the evening of the 24th if you were interested...

joe.

 

For anyone 'on the fence'...there's less than 2 weeks left!!!

We've got near 60 people that will be in attendance!!!

I just called Twin Creek...

PM me and I can give you details on how to get a site in the park for your RV if you want...

Not sure how long this will be available...so don't delay!

Those in attendance at this years rally will have first say/vote as to where next years rally will be...be there to have your voice heard!


Joe.

 

The rally is in a little over a week. My family will be arriving at Twin Creek on July 24. We've had some last minute additions to the rally...and wanted to allow all to have an opportunity to have a T-Shirt.

Therefore we have arranged with the printer to make one last printing run and I will hand carry all these shirts to the rally.

Jon will be leaving with his family this Thursday so we need any last minute orders to be put on his website click the following link (Rally T-Shirts) by NOON TOMORROW 7/16.

If anyone feels unsure about Paypal or such...please email Jon on his website as we can make other arrangements...it isn't a big deal...

Hope anyone still on the fence in joining the rally can commit...
We've now busted thru 60 people. Things are really coming together.

PSD's have the lead (a 2 to 1 margin right now)...thankfully the V10's are ultra strong!

Looking forward to seeing everyone next week.

Joe.

 

Well the rally was a huge success...thanks for letting us post in your forum.

See post #126 in this thread https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...p-today-9.html for the 'official' rally report.

Next years rally planning has already begun...stay tuned...it should be even bigger based on the success of this years!

Thanks again for allowing us to post here.

Joe.