Dogwood Rally at North Landing Beach - Summary

North Landing Beach in Virginia Beach

The Dogwood Rally at North Landing Beach Campground in Virginia Beach, VA was held Thursday June 5^th – Sunday June 8^th, 2025.  On behalf of your hosts, the Buelows, Robisons, and Meyers, we want to thank everyone who came and helped make the rally a great time.  We enjoyed the weekend and hope you did too!

 

We had 11 coaches, and 21 members attend the rally.  Mary Lou had signed up but unfortunately wasn’t able to join us – and we missed you!

 

The campground staff was friendly, helpful, and welcomed us with open arms.  We had the free use of a very nice rally room from Wed afternoon through Sunday’s breakfast.

 

We did have a rough start to the rally though.  Dave and Nanette’s fridge was on the fritz again, so they had a small dorm-sized fridge in their coach and hauled rally goodies in a cooler and was able to move it all into the rally room fridge upon arrival.  I wish I could tell you that was the worst of it, but nope.  On the way driving to the rally, Meyers and Buelows were traveling together, with Dave in the lead.  On the interstate, there was what we believe, a road rage incident between 2 other cars, when they stopped short, half in the road and half on the shoulder, causing Dave to hit the brakes hard.  Jim also had to brake hard.  Unfortunately, Susan was up checking the AC and fell hurting her shoulder.  After arriving at the campground, followed by a trip to the ER, we learned that she had fractured her shoulder in multiple places.  But she was a trooper and determined to stay at the rally for the weekend, joining us for all meals and gatherings.  And does it surprise anyone to know she figured out how to crochet with her left arm in a sling?  Nope – didn’t think so!

 

The rally kicked off on Thursday afternoon with happy hour and heavy hors d’oeuvres at the rally room.  It was great to socialize with everyone, and we got to meet our newest members, Don & Sandi DeLagrange.  And they fit right in like they had been members for years!  The weather was great, so later we enjoyed a campfire at the Meyer’s site.

Sandi

Friday breakfast was optional in the campground pavilion, and several met up there.  But, I think most of us slept in!  Friday afternoon we took over the putt-putt course for 9 holes of exciting golfing competition!  We played teams of 2 and it was competitive!  Team strokes were counted, and we ended with 1 team at 26, 2 at 23, 3 at 21, 1 at 20, and the champs at 19!  We even had a hole-in-one!  More on all that later.  Afterwards, the group all decided it was time for ice cream, so off to the campground’s ice cream shop we went.  And they did not scrimp on their scoops!  Look for the picture of Sandi’s banana split… WOW!

 

Later we all met back at the rally room for happy hour followed by a delicious BBQ dinner with salads and desert provided by the hosts.   

After dinner we handed out prizes to the putt-putt winners:

2025 NLB Putt-Putt Winners

Hole-in-One on the 9^th hole:  Clairevon received a NLB t-shirt.

2^nd Place with a score of 20:  Robi & Dale received a $15 DQ gift card.

1^st Place with a score of 19:  Jack and Mary received a campground hat and visor, plus a $15 DQ gift card.  

(The campground items were generously donated by the campground)

 

After that, we were treated to a fun game of trivia courtesy of Jean and Ed.  Forty, yes 40, grueling questions that had most of us scratching our heads, saying “Oh, we should know this!”  If memory serves, the Meyers and Robisons tied for high score, but like a kid’s participation sport  everyone was rewarded with $100,000 and Pay-Day candy bars.  Then came round 2 – 20 more questions on old TV commercial tag lines.  The Meyers won that round, but wait, more candy bars were handed out to all!   It was a lot of fun – thanks to Jean and Ed. 

 

Another campfire was enjoyed, this time at the Mahanes’ site. (Just watch out for the chairs with puddles in the seat!  Dave!)

 

Saturday morning started off with a full breakfast complete with eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits & gravy, and fruit, all provided by the hosts in the rally room.  After breakfast we took a couple group pictures and then a chapter meeting led by our President, Ed Herbert.  Minutes from the meeting will be posted to the Blog at a later date.  Everyone enjoyed a relaxing afternoon with friends and I heard that some visited the ice cream shop again!

 

We had happy hour again with pictures from the weekend playing on the big screen TV and a table full of crocheted slippers up for grabs.  The hosts served up a wonderful ham dinner along with a salad, au gratin potatoes, a corn casserole and, if you still had room, desert.

 

Clairevon

After dinner was our 50/25/25 raffle and a special donation.  The big winner on the raffle was Steve Mahanes.  Judy actually won the 2^nd drawing, but graciously donated it back.  Draws 2 and 3 ended with winners - the Buelows and Alexanders.  The donation I mentioned was won by Clairevon and turned out to be a beautiful afghan made by Susan Buelow.  And can you believe it?  A third campfire in as many nights, this one too at the Mahanes’ site.

 

Sunday concluded the rally with a continental breakfast in the rally room with leftovers, fruit, juice and a delicious coffee cake made by Nanette.

 

By The Way - Does anyone have a picture of George hooking up his towed in the pouring rain?  LOL!

 

We sincerely hope you all had a wonderful time at the rally!  And again, thank you all for coming.

 

Your Hosts, the Buelows, Robisons, and Meyers

2025 NLB Rally

 

Click here to see the Rally Photo Album