We all had a great time at our rally last week. It all started off with a pre-rally at the new Anchor Down RV Resort in Dandridge TN. It's just west of Sevierville TN but quiet and so beautiful there. Our Rally Coordinator Charles McGairty had recommended this new place and we all had a wonderful stay. Most of us were in the upper section with the best views. These stone fireplaces were at each spot.
On the pre-rally were Sanders, Bordes, Cassingham, Conway, and Loftfields.
The five of we SECCers were joined by 18 Nor'Easters who had caravanned down to join us before heading up to Lexington. It was hard to leave such a peaceful place.
The Kentucky Horse Park Rally was a joint SECC rally with CCI. Our own Velma & Hollis Williams' permanent home is in Lexington and Velma headed up the organizing of this amazing rally. Velma was really enjoying herself. She retired this year.. once again...and says some of these places she had never visited even though she grew up in Lexington.
We were able to fit in a social hour for SECC. We had 18 coaches at the rally and two who could not make it. Buddy and Ann Bordes have an outdoor TV so it was a great place to get together and still allow the football fans to follow their game. By the way, that lady sitting on the left with the curly blond hair is Marta. Her hair has grown back in curly!
We were kept busy with great tours: a local winery with lunch & entertainment, Keeneland Race track, Shaker Village, a stud farm,
downtown Lexington, a drive along country roads with the iconic stone fences, and Buffalo Trace bourbon brewery, the oldest one in the country started back in the 1700s.
One of the best tours was the Toyota manufacturing plant, their largest at over 1300 acres, the size of 156 football fields. We were glad we were driven around in a tram. It produces 2,000 cars a day. We were not allowed to take any photos. Could not even take a cell phone into the plant. It was incredibly enormous and busy all around and overhead. They aren't just an assembly plant like most car plants are now. They even do their own stamping.
The stud farm visit was fascinating. It is a serious business. This stallion, Shackelford, was brought out for us to see fairly close. Stallions are very hard to handle and he was constantly trying to bite his handler. Shackelford commands a $20,000 stud fee and he must perform 3-5 times a day, almost every day of the year. However, they are only paid once each foal is born strong and healthy. That is only around 60% of the births.
We lunched at Buffalo Trace Brewery & the toured the buildings. It was a good thing we came in 3 buses as there were whole cases of bourbon and their new Bourbon cream that came home with the members.
An SECC rally would not be complete without dancing with Chris. The last evening we had some light bluegrass entertainment and Chris could not help himself. He was right up on the dance floor motioning members to join
him. Last time we saw Chris his legs were giving him a bad time, but his new braces are making a big difference. It was such a nice end to our rally.
THANK YOU VELMA
And thank you as well to CCI Rally Coordinator & SECC member Tammy Toalson.
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