Part of the rally’s festivities was a door decorating contest. I failed to take photos of most of the doors, but this is how I learned that we were next door to members of the Australian contingent and across the hall from the Estonians.

Monday morning, there was a sign across the hall reading “Welcome to Estonia.” By mid-morning, the sign had been joined by a string of pennants running down the hall and a larger WIMA Estonia flag.

By late afternoon, the pennants and WIMA Estonia flag had been moved outside and the building and the members of the Estonia group were putting up more decorations. I joked that at this rate, I expected their decorations to surround the camp by nightfall.

Why were they moving their signs? Why, to make them more visible! The rally in Maine wasn’t just the USA rally, it was WIMA’s international rally, and next year’s International rally will be in Estonia.

Among the decorations they were putting up were some notecards with “fun facts” about Estonia and the Estonian People. When I saw these among them, I realized these are My Kind of People!!

After dinner that evening, I spent a few minutes chatting with my neighbors across the hall: Maris, Gerli, and Signe, with them were Maris and Gerli’s spouses, Valla and Peps respectively.

It was a pleasant conversation, I enjoyed meeting them. And I learned that many of things written on the cards were true. And many of the things not on the cards were also true: they’re warm, friendly people, quite pleasant to spend time with. With a fun sense of humor.

On Friday, they did a brief presentation about the WIMA 2026 International Rally. It will be in Valgeranna, Pärnu County, Estonia on August 3-8, 2026. It looks like a nice place to go ride a motorcycle.

Here’s a video they included in their presentation.

(Subtitles from the video)

Valgeranna Holiday Center was established in 2015 and is now one of the most beautiful places at the Pärnu Bay, with a pine forest and a wide white sandy beach.

Valgeranna Holiday Center is located 6km distance from well-known resort town Pärnu which is also Estonian summer capital.

For accomodation, Valgeranna has 2-4 people camping houses, plenty of place for tents and motorhomes. Thanks to its location, Valgeranna has sandy beach and warmer sea water than average.

Estonia is nestled on the shores of the Baltic Sea, with 2,222 islands and over 3,700 km of coastline. Estonia is shaped by water and forest.

More than half of the country is covered in woods, and many Estonians still feel a sacred connection to certain trees, springs, and groves — echoes of our pagan past.

With just 1.3 million people, Estonia is one of Europe’s most sparsely populated countries. Our language is ancient and unique — with no gender or future tense — and yet it carries the voice of a singing nation. In 1991, Estonia regained independence not with weapons, but with singing.

Estonia is also a pioneer in digital society. We sign everything online, run businesses from laptops, and file taxes in minutes. Every month, we save Eiffel Tower’s height in paper. Estonia is small, but never ordinary. It is a place where time slows down — and speeds up all at once.

Here’s more of their fun facts about Estonia: