The rest of the week....

As you can tell from the pictures below, the 2006 Dr Pepper Bottler's Convention was a very busy time for us! On Monday the Company Store officially opened to a huge crowd of Dr Pepper bottlers and Jennie, Jack, Linda and I greeted people, helped with questions, passed out the chip cups that we ordered especially for the event which we stuffed with our mail order catalogs, and also ended up taking over the bubble game station. The story behind that is that people had to play the bubble game to enter to win a guitar signed by Rod Stewart, and the guy who was running it left and we ended up showing people how to use it. Monday night dinner was in the hotel and the entertainment was the Rat Pack impersonators, who were hilarious. The food and conversation was good, and we got to sit with Mrs. Clements and her daughter Judy and talk the night away.

The next day was a big day since the General Session was that morning at 9:30, which is where they reveal all the new promotions for the next year. Of course they are all top secret, but all I can tell you is that they are AWESOME and worth the wait!! I am not at liberty to discuss, but perhaps a few hints can be obtained from the photos below (wink wink!). The performers at the General Session were The Temptations, Tina Turner, Prince, Bruce Springstein, and Elvis. So Fun!! Hopefully the video I took of them will be up soon. Afterwards it was kind of chaotic since Rod Stewart was that night and the Company Store was about to be torn down, but people were still buying away. At around 2:00 we started to pack everything up, and it is amazing that it took a whole day to put everything up but just about 2 hours to take everything down. We sold a lot, but we always hope to do better every year. WELL... That night was the Rod Stewart concert, but before that we ate dinner by the beautiful pool at the hotel. The concert wat so small and in the same room that the General Session had been, so Rod was so close! He sang all of his hits, and everyone had a blast. After the concert we all had to go back up to our rooms to pack, but one of the best parts of the convention was yet to come!!

On Wednesday morning was the farewell brunch, and there is always a guest entertainer after the breakfast portion. There were very unconfirmed rumors that it was going to be Jack Black, but I don't think he would have been as well recieved as the person who was actually there. To our surprise, it was Bill Engvall of "Here's Your Sign" and Blue Collar TV fame! I don't think we stopped laughing for an hour and a half straight. SO FUNNY! I would definitely recommend seeing him live. It was a great way to end the convention, and all the new contacts we made were worth every second of all the hard work we did. It was a great trip, and we hope you all enjoy the pics below!!