Day 6, Thursday July 3

Today was relatively slack, just a delegates meeting and the awards banquet.

I tried the delegates meeting, it took just an hour or so. The club has lost about 200 members out of 4000. The 2009 and 2010 conclaves will be at Kingston, Ont. and somewhere in Illinois, respectively. 2011 and 2012 are currently open. A couple of members asked me if we would yet consider holding a conclave in Taos or elsewhere in NM. I said it it was not likely, our club is too small to handle it.

I took a break from the event and drove up I-5 to Mission Viejo to visit my Aunt and Uncle Barrett. I was about a 70 mile drive. Lots of traffic, the $4.50 gas in California has slowed them down but folks are still out there. My return was pressed, it took two hours to crawl through holiday beach traffic to get back to the hotel.

Our little club did fairly well for awards. Agatha took a first and Bob Lee took fourth in the Gymkhana. He was in a big class (100-6 and early 3000) with plenty of competition. I didn't see anyone faster, but apparently there were some.

We were stunned to get the Conclave participation award for highest percentage of attendees. We had five registrants out of 14 members. We got to go on the stage and our club will get an official plaque. Bravo!

Joyce Sullivan showed up for part of the banquet, but she was still hurting and needed to keep her legs up to stop swelling. The arm is on the mend, but it is still tender. Bill H decided to stay in SD for a day or two with Joyce. I will be coming home with Judy and Doug. The Kells and Lee/Sprague will be behind, so we have plenty of support if anything goes wrong.