Tom/ Day 1 of Branson Rally

 
 My son, Tom, is in the Air Force and is stationed in Japan.  Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta visited Tokyo, Japan Sept. 17, 2012. Panetta visited with defense counterparts in Tokyo before traveling to Beijing, China and Auckland, New Zealand on a week long trip to the Pacific.  While he was there Tom met with him and a pic was taken.

Today was a fun day.  This is really day number 1 of our 11 day Branson, Mo Rally.  We came in a day early and had a fun day visiting instead of rushing around trying to get a spot for the rv and then registering at the rally.  They had free coffee and the park provided free pancakes for breakfast.  
Then they had an orientation for the first-timers.  We broke for lunch and came back to the convention center for the opening ceremonies where we met the owners of the company and all the people in the organization.  We also met the major of Branson. This part of the day was split into parts and between the different parts a comedian would come in and entertain us and he was so funny.

We broke again and came back at 5 pm for social hour and then had dinner.  It was ham, salad, potatoes, veggies, and desserts. yumm.

After dinner we had a fun show that came to the rv convention center. 

This was our evening entertainment tonight. They are called the Homestead Pickers Hillbilly Band and they were good singers, story tellers and great fun.

This gentleman is playing the hammer dulcimer.

The theme for the evening events was Ozark "Hillbilly Hoedown" and if you wanted you could come dressed like a hillbilly.  So we did and it was fun.  Rog and I got first place for the best hillbillys there. Notice Rog got all dressed up with tie and all. LOL

  Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily southern Appalachia but also the Ozarks.  "a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.

The gentleman in the center in the red shirt is Horace.  He was at our table for dinner and the show.  He is 85 and from Louisiana. He brought his accordion for one of the band members to play, but they talked him into playing, it did not take much convincing to get that to happen.  He was quite the entertainer.  He even sang a Cajan tune.  

Tomorrow we are up and on the tour bus at 9 am and return at 5:30 let the dogs out change if we need to and back on the bus for a trip to the theater for a show and home at 9:30pm,  Busy day fun fun fun.