WIN’s Pre-Rally Activities

As I mentioned in my last post I was going to be attending a WIN’s Dance Rally. “WIN” stands for “Wandering Individuals Network”. This is a club for single RV’s with members from all over the US, Canada and Mexico. They hold numerous gatherings throughout the year, coordinated by its members. There are rallies like this dance rally and what they call circuits where they will travel certain areas of the country, Mexico or Canada. Stopping for a week or two in different locations, coming up with interesting and fun things to do in the area. A member or two will host these gatherings while in the area. They prearrange places to stay most of the time either boondocking or with limited hookups. If you’d like more information check out their website here at rvsingles.org . The rally itself started on Sunday October 28th with a day of registration, socializing, reconnecting and welcoming newcomers, they had a lasagna dinner in the evening as part of the rally’s kickoff activities. The actual rally itself officially started on Monday the 29th with breakfast being served every day, dance lessons being taught earlier in the day and evening dances, but I’ll cover more of that in upcoming posts. In this one I’m gonna highlight a few activities we did before the actual rally started. Many of us arrived on Tuesday, October 23. The Fountain of Youth SPA and RV Resort where we are staying was offering a special discount rate five days before the week of the rally and then five days after to all the people attending. If you were a first timer staying at the park, you got full hookups for only $13 a night and returning rally attendees got a full hookup site for $24 a night which is still considerably cheaper than the $40 a night regular rate. This is a very nice facility out in the middle of nowhere, just outside the town of Niland, California. You are within view of the Salton Sea just to the west. Here’s a photo of my rig with the mountains in the background. 
The park consists of an assortment of park models and RVs and it’s basically a snowbird get away spot. It’s very well-maintained with excellent facilities. 
They have two large swimming pools one saltwater and one freshwater. 
Numerous assorted hot tubs, they also have mineral steam rooms and mineral water tubs to soak in. 
This resort like most of them of this type have numerous activities scheduled throughout the week and month for its guests. You can check out their website here. Throughout our stay the WIN’s group will have morning and afternoon gatherings to discuss and make plans for the day and upcoming days. And at these times they discuss the planned activities to keep everyone very informed. 
The one day a bunch of us got together and people with four-wheel-drive vehicles offered to go on a four wheeling trip out in the desert. People who drive will offer to take along passengers to enjoy the outing. The practice is the passengers that go on the trip will chip in $.10 a mile to cover the fuel costs, which is a super deal. So we loaded up six four-wheel-drive’s and took off for about a 40 mile trip lasting several hours. 
We had a guide that knew the area any stopped about every hour in interesting spots to check things out. Our first stop was just an area of salt flats, we got out stretch your legs and took some pictures. 
Next we stopped near a bunch of caves that during the summer were home to bats, but they had all migrated south are ready. 
We gathered around and took a lunch break. 
And enjoyed the view off in the distance. 
Our next stop was along the power lines were there were numerous large rock circles probably placed there by the workers when they put in these high tension power lines. Another photo op. 
Our last stop before heading back was on a little “Desert Oasis” where there’s a natural thermal spring. At one time there were some buildings in the area and there’s beautifully green palm trees and other species of plant life. This spring and the little stream it forms is home to a rare “Desert Pupfish” that is on the endangered species list. This was a fun filled several hours trip that if not for my driver Phil, would not have been possible for me. Thanks again for taking me along. On another day a whole bunch of us got together and had a bocce ball tournament.
We did teams of two people with the winners moving on, switching partners with other winners and played another round. We started at 10 in the morning but by the time I had managed to be a winner, for three rounds and move on to the finals. It was past noon and getting quite hot. So the four of us that were left decided to call it a day and not do a final playoff. It was just for fun and bragging rights anyways so there was no need to go any longer and suffer in the afternoon heat. 
There are numerous other things that we did before the rally started like afternoon and evening get-togethers at the pool, several social hours and just getting to know each other or re-uniting old friendships. Throughout the week we had numerous beautiful sunsets, so I’ll share a few photos with you here till my next post. Up next a visit to “Slab City”. Thanks for coming along best wishes to all, Rick 

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