Set Up Day

The group has been doing set up for the last couple of days and as each of the rooms became available more set up was required. Yesterday, we were called upon to help with set up. I knew we couldn't get away without doing something. But it was so much fun and I know that everyone will call me crazy, but this stuff is exciting - even the setup!

NEW NEW NEW - there's a lot of new out there. My head is spinning with all the new stuff and starting TONIGHT, we get to share that with the dealers. That's even more exciting because then I get to share that with you.

I did get out for a walk again. I saw a lot more people yesterday morning and even walked a wee bit with a couple of them. When I got back to the hotel, I still had time so I decided to find the other shorter walk that I had heard about.

This one followed the "river". There's a man-made river on the property and I followed that. Near the end of the river, I saw more buildings and what's that??  A western town?? So I did some more exploring. Oh yes  - there's a whole western town. It's used for special events. Holidays, concerts, and other such stuff.

Downtown Rawhide

This cannon was in the movie Wild, Wild West with Will Smith

I also noticed that there were two boats along the way. What for?? I found out later in the day that you could go for a ride on the boat. So when I came out of the hotel and saw the boat waiting at the dock, I hopped on board. Nothing like striking out on another adventure. I swear - being independent is truly a fun way to live. All I can say is thank goodness, M learned that from us as well.

I chatted with the lady driving the boat all the way to the end and back. I learned a lot about the property. Near the end of the boat ride and the place called Rawhide place is the OLD casino. People could stay at this resort and take the boat to the casino and the western village. Now the casino is moved a couple of miles away and attached to a hotel - a big hotel which is where we're going today.

View from the boat as we left the boat dock

View from the boat along the river

I had asked about wildlife and she said she had spotted a bobcat just 40 minutes earlier while driving the boat down the river. No way??? Yep - she showed me the picture. The bobcat had something in hits mouth - carrying food to its baby. It swam across the river and up on the other side. I would have loved to see that, but I got to see her picture. Close enough!

At one point on the riverwalk, I saw this in the concrete. Back home, we might see footprints, here we see critter tracks. Very cute.

Critter tracks in the concrete

We're now into eating all together instead of our smaller groups. Fun to see and meet the people that I met last year. A few vendors or outside people are also here with their products. Can't wait to have a chat with some of them (that I know).

We had a group dinner outside last night on one of the patios. I was back in the room by about 7 PM and have to confess that I was in bed about 8 PM. It was a long day and over 20,000 steps. My feet were happy to be out of the shoes.

Of course, that meant that I was up in the night. I mean - I'm not that tired that I need 10 hours of sleep so I read a wee bit, checked that I have access to the Air Canada Rouge app (it was already installed on my phone - I just didn't know what I had to do) and then back to sleep for a bit.

I'm going to pack and then get ready for my walk. It'll be my last one as there won't be enough time in the next couple of days as we have to get to this hotel and have an early breakfast in order to start the classes at 8:30. It's not that the hotels are far apart, but you have to wait for a shuttle and well - anytime you wait on someone else, you know it will take longer than you planned.

I took photos of the rooms that we set up and the machines so I'll post those once we get going on the classes. It's pretty darn impressive to see rooms and rooms of sewing machines - lined up perfectly like soldiers. I think we all did an amazing job. And more than once, I was thanked by my colleagues for "taking charge" for some of the tasks. Dang it - I can't help that. It just comes out because I can't stand to waste time or effort. Make a decision, assign people to do it and keep them happy and entertained.

Two things I should mention about the walk. First - the walk is a total of 2.5 miles. I thought it was 2.5 miles out and then 2.5 miles back. Hey - I had grand visions that I'm a super-fast walker. Alas, the total walk, out and back is 2.5 miles. That's OK - that's a nice morning walk. I think it was the first day that I saw a runner just coming back as I was going out. He had a headlamp on. Seriously??? It's one thing to run in the dark, but another to run in a strange place, in the desert with a headlamp. But there doesn't seem to be much wildlife around, although it is around because you can see poop on the path.

Not going to worry about it - just keep an eye out and keep moving.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!