“Oceano” Pacific Zone Rally

Sept 30 - Oct 1, 2006

By: Laura Calderwood

32 RV’s with 65 Rotarians and guests traveled the beautiful Coastline of California to ”Oceano” to attend a Rally put on by Wagon Masters Phil & Shirley Henry, Harry & Jackie Walls and Lee and Paula Wainscott. The RV’s started rolling in on Thursday and by 5:00 PM we were at the club house having cocktails and very good BBQ hamburgers, all prepared by our Wagonmasters. After the dinner we got to renew old acquaintance and meet new people.

Friday we were treated to Bagels with every kind of cream cheese topping imaginable, fruit, juices and fresh brewed coffee.

After breakfast, we boarded the bus and traveled about 75 miles up the coast to Hearst Castle. After lunch we viewed the National Geographic wide-screen film and toured the Castle. If you have never seen this it is worth the trip to the West Coast.

Friday evening started with a wonderful wine tasting Happy Hour; this area has many Wineries with very good California Wines. We then experienced our traditional Heavy Hors d’oeuvres dinner. After dinner we heard a very interesting talk about the famous Pacific Dunes by one of the docents from the Dunes Center in Guadalupe.

Peter & Peggy Hesse from Nipomo are chrysanthemum growers, and provided 25 6” pots of them in beautiful colors. The Nipomo club has a project of Mums for Mammograms for needy women, so they auctioned them off and raised $500.00 to go to a great cause.

Saturday started with a Continental Breakfast and everyone was on their own for the day. Some visited Wineries, saw a local Mission, explored Solvang or just visited Pismo Beach for some great Clam Chowder. In the afternoon we car pooled to the Great American Melodrama to see “Drac in the Saddle Again” which was funny and entertaining. While we were there having fun the Nipomo Club was cooking their famous Santa Maria BBQ TriTips, with Baked Bean, Salad and Garlic Bread. For dessert we had a Yummy cake decorated with the RVF logo. After dinner we had our Sing-a-long.

It was great to see Don and Midge Billings and Ray and Rosey Wirth at the Rally. Sunday was a delicious catered breakfast to send us on our way.

As Editor of this write up, I would like to say - and I know everyone felt this way - the three couples, one of which had never been to a rally, did a magnificent job and we all had a wonderful time because of all their efforts