Fantastic Fall Rally

Review prepared by Doug Tilmann:

The October rally was put on by Steve and Cassie Lisle, Jim and Barb Gibson and Danny and Mary Lou Biddle at Steve and Cassie Lisle's beautiful property north of Columbia City and it was a great fall experience -- absolutely loaded with activities. The weather was drop dead gorgeous, clear sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80's. We took a tour of Silgan Plastics in Ligonier, which is one of the largest manufacturers of plastic bottles in the world and it was a very interesting operation. Then we had lunch at the "Fashion Farm Restaurant" which is located on a farm that grows all sorts of stuff – pumpkins, squash, flowers, etc. and featured the "Pumpkin Fantasy Land", a creative Halloween maze display. After lunch, back at the Lisle farm, there was a Euchre tournament and a dice tournament followed by a sloppy joe dinner with all kinds of side dishes that the rallyers brought in.  MaryLou treated us to "Stone Soup" with a big rock in it. She took big rock about four inches in diameter, heated it up real hot and dropped it into the soup. The hot stone keeps the soup from getting cold. Cassie assured us that the big rock had been scrubbed, run through the dishwasher and had been properly sanitized. After dinner there was a huge campfire with a man strolling around the campfire circle strumming a guitar and singing all manner of songs to a large circle of Hoosier Cruisers.

Saturday morning we did one of those carry-in breakfast things where everyone brings way more than they could eat by themselves resulting in a really huge table full of way too much food and everyone, therefore, eats way too much food. The Lisle’s, our rally hosts, are very well organized folks. Steve's shop is all painted up and really neat and clean – really clean! ! Some folks think a man's shop should be messy. Actually, Steve and Cassie, both, are classic "neat freaks". For the rest of the day the Lisles had organized all manner of "stuff" including a sort of "games for everyone" thing. There was a bracelet making class, fishing pole casting into a big yellow ring contest, egg toss from one guy to another with raw eggs, carry an egg in a spoon and back without dropping it, pitching bean bags into a hole, etc.

Saturday evening we had catered dinner in one of the Lisle’s barn/buildings and afterwards they gave away tons of door prizes that were wrapped up in newspaper in what is sometimes called an "Ever Changing Gift Exchange". When your name was drawn you could go and pick one of the wrapped packages – no lifting or shaking — and then you brought it back to your seat where you had to unwrap it and sit it on your table for all to see. Now when the next guy’s name was drawn he had another option. He could do the same thing that you did and pick a wrapped package from the table or he could walk over to your table and confiscate the prize that you had previously chosen. A prize could only be "confiscated" two times after which it permanently resided with its last owner. This whole process was an absolute hoot. If you selected and unwrapped a particularly attractive prize – forget it ! You were destined to get ripped off. Louise, picked a big package and unwrapped this kinda neat folding lawn chair/chaise lounge type gadget and set it in front of her on the table. She looked at it, affectionately, stroked it and beamed with pride and joy. Well, naturally, it didn’t last long. The next gal whose name was called walked away from the prize table and zeroed in on Louise’s lounge chair like a laser beam. Louise sadly watched her prized chair leave for it's new home. Not surprisingly the new owner shortly fell victim to the same process and someone ripped off the lounge from her like she had done from Louise. A while later Louise’s husband, JR’s, name was drawn and just what do you think happened? With Louise energetically coaching JR, he walked straight away towards the most recent lounge chair owner and reclaimed Louise’s treasured chaise lounge. The rub was that this represented the third rip-off of the lounge so it was now immune to rip-off forevermore. Louise and her lounge could now live "happily ever after" – sort of like the princess and the ex- frog who was now a handsome prince. Folks got very involved in protecting their treasured prizes. There was large amounts of hootin’ and hollerin’ it was great fun to watch this whole process.

Sunday morning we were treated to fresh fried "Potato Doughnuts" engineered by Danny & Mary Lou, Jim & Barb, Steve & Cassie, and Doug who assisted in the very early cooking process. It was a dynamite rally and a great way to end the season.