July 2016 Rally

Dates: July 15-17, 2016

Location:Marlington, WV

Hosts: Rick and Cindy Roberson

Campground: Riverside Campground


Well guess what? We had rain again for our July rally! No kidding. The best thing is that it did not interfere with our train ride to the top of Cass Mountain. In fact the clouds made it a very pleasant day and kept the sun from making the day too hot to enjoy. The rally was hosted by Cindy and Ric Roberson. We had a total of 11 coaches. Those attending were: 2 families of Meltons. Mom and Dad Melton known to us as Paul and Carol and there absolutely great children and grandchildren, Jeff and Sarah and 3 kids Lilly, Dawson and Maddie, Deni and Kamal, Gene and Judy, Evelyn and Dave and grandson Austin; Felicia; Karen; Betty and Rex; Barbara and Dennis, and Ralph and Pat Housden

It was a great weekend with the normal activities of golf and site seeing on Friday. Dave, Gene and Austin played 9 holes of golf. Actually, it was Gene and Austin who played and Dave became a golfing coach for Austin. This was necessary because Dave was recovering from a gashed finger with stitches holding it together.

Friday night was supper at a lovely bed and breakfast with preordered meals that were delicious with a great ambiance for visiting and enjoying the antics of the wildlife outside.

Saturday was our day for going up to Cass Mountain on the Cass steam train. It’s always fun to do something like that together. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the top and then watched the steam train and diesel locomotive in a short race. Both trains have had a lot of refurbishing and tender loving care by people who love their history. It was a really close call, but the diesel one beat out the steam by a nose. Seems some people may have had small wagers on the race making some happy and some disappointed! I won’t say who those individuals might have been but it was a huge wager of at least $1.

As always our meals were outstanding. Breakfast included pancakes and all the fixings and supper was filled with tacos, burritos and soft tacos with chicken, shrimp and steak fillings. Key lime pie and cake and ice cream were crowd pleasers to satisfy our sweet tooth’s (I don’t think sweet teeth sounds right). We again auctioned off the remainder of the food in a fun battle between some of the families.

Happy Hour is always “happy” and the July rally was no exception.

Cindy led us in devotions Sunday morning before we all pulled in our slides and headed home. Carol, Paul and family stayed an extra day and sent out a picture of a friendly bear cub than rambled through our campground after we left.

Many of us came to the campground by way of Lexington and I64 instead of coming over the mountain ranges. However, after talking with Ric, some tried the mountain and actually found that it’s ok to take the hairpin turns and ups and downs without having problems only the imagination can think of! Thank you Ric for giving us that opportunity.

Submitted by Judy Matthews