Rode into the Chelan Rally in a downpour & was quickly invited under a tarped roof
to wait out the shower. Rain continued on & off until about 5:00 PM when it finally
cleared & warmed up quickly.
Admission was 20 bucks & a can of food. Lots of vendors & good cheap food.
Camping was in a nice grassy area & separated into "blocks" with room enough for
about 8 - 10 tents per block. There was a large fenced in area in the center of the
vendor area which I never quite figure out the purpose of as it was never used for
anything. I heard that is was intended for parking.

Too Slim of Too Slim and the Tail Draggers gave a nice acoustic solo in the late
afternoon & as the evening wore on the The Jerry ‘Hotrod’ De Mink band and the full
Tail Draggers band rocked the evening Friday night. Saturday morning we woke to
rain which continued lightly until the early afternoon, then again, it cleared & the fun
began! There was a Poker run, bike rodeo, beard and tattoo contest followed by a
fabulous wet tee shirt contest with the ladies really getting into it & showing a lot more
than wet tee shirts! It was a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness & you could buy
water gun squirts for a buck a shot! The Seattle Cossacks performed in front of the
Mill Bay Casino in the afternoon. Saturday night the music ended up with a wonderful
fireworks show followed by a midnight theater with lots of great well selected clips
including a old "Outer Limits" where a trio of biker from outer space try to save a
beautiful young earthling before the earth is destroyed!

Great Rally & I would vote a must go for next year.


>>>>Lake Chelan Rally 2005<<<<

I would have to say this ranks HIGH on the fun list. It was my firs time there. The cost
for the whole time was $10 and a can of food or $11.00. This was the total cost to get
in and included 3 days with camping.

The camping was a little cramped. It was held on a golf course driving range. They
used most of the driving range for the rally area with Vendors, Stage, Beer Garden,
Bike show area and a lot of bike parking. There was some camping in this area but
unsure if it was vendors only. The camp area was at the end and pretty small. I got in
around 3 pm Friday and lucked out to find an area open. But fell in with some good
people. More crammed in as the rally went on. If you got there late Friday or
Saturday was tough.

The Rally site was just a few miles out of Manson and around 6 miles from Chelan.
There are lots of restaurants and bars at both locations. So lots of food and
entertainment options.

Ok to the Rally itself. Sunday the weather was pretty windy. Some tents were going
down and it was tough to sleep with your tent flopping all around you. The bands on
Friday (3 I think) ranged from ok to one down right crappy. Lots of vendors and
parties all around.

Saturday however was perfect. No wind and warm to hot but not quite cooking hot.
They had a $1000.00 poker run. It was won by a lady with four 5’s. One of the stops
was Mansfield which is about 30 miles east of there. I did not do the poke run but
they were having bike drags at the Mansfield airport. Which is just a small runway.
There were Harleys, Other V twins and a good showing of Sport bikes. The Sport
guys gave a hell of a show prior to the actual drags. All kinds of burn outs, wheelies,
a nose down tail up stops. There were some Harley on Sport bike drags which were
pretty interesting. One Harley actually tided or beat the sport bike. He got a nice
cheer when he came back. However it cost him a cracked case. He came back
dripping oil.

The Bands that night were awesome. To slim Jim and the Taildraggers started us off.
They are a great southern blues mixed with classic rock. They play allover and are at
lots of rallies. The last band was IRON BUTTERFLY. With 2 of the originals they blew
our socks off and finished up with the long version of  In a Godda Da Vida (or In the
Garden of Eden). The music for those 2 sessions was outstanding. The only problem
is they were done by 11. Other rallies will go till early or late next morning. But being
in a populated area I can understand it.

The liquor rules were relaxed. You could carry any were even thou they had a beer
garden. Sunday it started raining early. So we came back wet. So I would rate this as
a must do.