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Funtime Travelers December
Campout Dec. 9-10-11 By Ted Meekma Five coaches turned out for our December Christmas Campout, and although we were low in turnout, we were high in spirit, and had a great time together, all ten of us! We were happy to have Frank & Donna Randolph back with us! Donna has been having some health problems over the past year, and it sure was good to see them back again. Evie & I were happy to be there again, too, after our seven-month stint back in Wisconsin, and it was good to see Phyllis & Irene, Harlan & Barb and Bud and Paula once again. We thought sure we would be seeing more of you, and really looking forward to it, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen! Why not?????? We could not have asked for nicer weather! Beautiful sunshine and in the 80’s both days! We spent lots of time outside visiting and enjoyed our happy hour outside next to our coach both days! And Saturday, due to a few last-minute changes in our anticipated schedule, we even enjoyed our Wine & Cheese party outside! Friday afternoon, after our happy hour, we drove over to the Marina in Moore Haven for an enjoyable Tuna Casserole and peas dinner, with a choice of cherry or apple pie alamode for desert. One of our members, I won’t mention any names, but his initials are Frank Randolph, decided to get his dessert at the same time as the main course so he wouldn’t have to stand in line again. However, by the time he got back to the table, his ice cream was melting, so he ate his pie & ice cream first! No problem, right Frank??? Donna says he does it that way at home all the time!!! After dinner we visited together for a while and then decided to call it a night. No cards or dominoes. Probably the first time ever! Saturday morning we had a very tasty pitch-in breakfast, scrambled eggs & sausage, bacon, fruit dish, donuts, coffee and orange juice. After breakfast, we had our chapter meeting, the first since last April, due to the fact that this time, we did (although just barely) have a quorum! We had some interesting discussion. What we didn’t have was election of officer’s because there weren’t any new officers to elect!! In fact, due to Donna Randolph’s illness over most of the past year, Paula has been serving as both our secretary and treasurer!! And at the November campout at Little Willie’s, Dave & Martha Horrocks, our vice-presidents, resigned, so we are without a vice-president now, too. We desperately need someone to step up and offer to serve as vice-president! Paula, who graciously agreed last December to continue to serve as secretary up until the time she and Bud were sworn in as Winnie-gator presidents, last March, would like to have a replacement as well! Anyone out there that would be willing to serve as our secretary would be doing Paula a big favor. She and Bud really have their hands more than full!! I offered to do the Chapter newsletters and WIT Magazine articles for the five months that we ‘re down here. It sure would be wonderful to have a couple of you offer to serve as vice-president, and/or secretary! Please give it your utmost consideration!! Another matter of interest that was discussed was our obligation to be responsible for registration again at the March State meeting at Orlando. If you recall from last year, it is a big job, and requires about 20 of us to get the job done in a timely manner. So please make the March State meeting a priority on your calendar. We need you there with us!!! President Bud also informed us that about three Florida Winnie-gator Chapters are planning on attending the Winnebago Rally, at Valdosta/Lake Park, Georgia KOA, April 20-23, 2006. This Rally is co-sponsored by Sun Coast RV – Lake Park, and Sun Coast RV – Winter Garden. Bud would like us to consider attending this rally in place of our April meeting at El Jobean. Registration Fee of $70.00 (2 persons) covers 2 full breakfasts, 2 dinners, 1 continental breakfast and 3 nights of entertainment, along with 3 nights of camping with full hook-ups. This would be something a bit different for us for a change, and sounds like fun! Please give this some consideration also. If we would decide to do this, our reservations would have to be in no later than February 24, 2006. We were also reminded that we have to have our dues in to Donna Randolph, our treasurer, by January 1st, which is also the date we have to send in our chapter roster for the new year to WIT. So please get your $10.00 dues mailed in to Donna as soon as possible! Saturday afternoon we had our wine & cheese party next to our coach (beautiful weather again) and had a good time visiting, telling a few stories, and enjoying the good wine and cheese. We changed our plans to go to the Clewiston Inn for dinner, when we found out that the park was having their usual Saturday night spaghetti dinner. If you recall, we did this two years ago, and as then, it was very good, and saved us the trip over to Clewiston. Frank was disappointed though! He was so looking forward to eating his dessert before his spaghetti …. and there wasn’t any!!! Totally cramped his style!! But then they did come out with jello, so at least he didn’t have to go without! After dinner we had our Scottish Christmas exchange. Another fun time with some good laughs. In fact we enjoyed just the visiting, laughing and talking so much, before we knew it, it was 9 pm and we hadn’t played any games yet!! Being so close to bedtime for most of us at that point, we decided to fore-go the game playing and just call it a night! Sunday morning we had our continental breakfast in the little clubhouse, sharing it with several couples from a Good Sam Club that also had their rally there over the weekend. One of their guys was a big home-made bread maker (I believe they said he had four bread making machines), and they made toast for us with four different kinds of bread, and of course, jellies, and even furnished the coffee!! Very nice people, and it was fun doing something just a little bit different again! Man, this is getting long!!! Just about done!!! Just a reminder that our next meeting will be with the Winnie-gators at Topical Palms, Kissimmee, January 20, 21 & 22. Hope you all plan on being there! Also, don’t forget, dues for 2006 are due now, and if you have it in your heart to serve as our chapter vice-president or secretary, please let us know! Our chapter needs you ! Finally, thanks to Bud & Paula, Harlan & Barb for co-hosting our weekend. Great job! Evie and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
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