Treasure Coast Travelers
January outing 2004

 

 

arrival

Treasure Coast Travelers met at Okeechobee Landing on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in Clewiston on January 16-19.  We had 9 coaches attend which was a great turnout for this time of the year.   

Those present were Art and Odete Hayes, Ralph & Barbara Wilson, Billy & Gail Barnes, Frank & Fran Daidone, Art & Odete Hayes, Ed & Marion Jablonski, Ken Vianest & Marianne Boruch, John & Dana Bumpus, Tom Brichert & Lin Ell and our good friends and WIT’s Eastern Area Reps John & Marlyn Fischer.

 NEW MEMBERS

Our membership drive is starting to prove worthwhile.  We gained two new members this month.  Welcome Dana & John Bumpus and Tom Brichert & Lin Ell, both from Fort Pierce.  New member packets were given to each of them. 

 GUESTS John & Marlyn Fischer, WIT Eastern Area Reps and our friends joined us for the campout.  John & Marlyn both have worlds of knowledge about the Winnebago products and they keep us well informed.  They made their coach available to our members and the inquiring eyes of all camping at Okeechobee Landing.  What a beautiful Journey.  John visited many Winnebago RV’ers and shared his RV knowledge.  Happy traveling guys and stop in again soon.

 Friday,  ah…we’re ready for a relaxing weekend.

Forget about all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, forget about all the money we spent and let’s kick back and enjoy the weekend.  Well that’s exactly what we did.  Old Man Weather was really on our side for this campout.  Everyone kept saying “can you beat this Florida weather?”  I guess after returning from the north, many of us were happy to return to sunny south Florida. 

 Okeechobee Landing is a very nice campground but there is one fault.  Love Bugs!  Getting there really made a mess of our rigs.  However, we decided that the love  bugs in sunny Florida sure beats the snow and ice in the north.

 After the rigs were set up we gathered around Ralph & Barbara Wilson’s proverbial “campfire” for Happy Hour.  Telling stories of our travels began.  After we shared our tales, some members were off to Sonnys Bar-b-Que for ribs.  If there is a Sonny’s around you can bet some of us will be there.   Guess who?   This time Ralph & Barbara and John & Marlyn joined Billy & Gail even after they shared to critter joke. (inside joke)

 Later we all gathered to play cards and got “snookered.”  No, this does not mean that we got drunk.  (another inside joke, sorry)  The usage of this word became quite diverse during the game as it was being used to substitute for many things. 

 Saturday  morning free-time was spent relaxing in the sun.  A few of us ventured out for breakfast and a tour of the town.  Clewiston is the Bass capital of the world (they say) and there is always a lot of activity at the marinas.  Dana & John were going to hang around an extra day and try the fishing. 

 Everyone gathered after lunch at the bocce ball court.  Our bocce ball games are becoming quite competitive as our skills improve.  John & Marlyn were impressed when Odete came with the measuring tape to keep us straight. 

 New members Dana & John became quite good and Dana kept saying “I like this game” and we suspect that Tom was a ringer.  That’s right Tom - this wasn’t your first game of bocce ball right?

 After bocce ball we all met at the Wilson’s site for ice cream.  Thanks goes to Gail & Billy for the ice cream and to Ralph for helping prepare it.  There appears to be a couple of ice cream monsters in the club since large volumes were consumed.  We may need to video the next ice cream social to capture these monsters since denials were all around.  We topped our ice cream with mangos, chocolate syrup or straw-berries and enjoyed the event.  So much for the diet!

POT LUCK - OLE’ – Good things a’ cookin…For dinner we had all agreed to try our hands at preparing “Spanish” pot luck.  It is hard to believe that some of us had never made Spanish/ Mexican food before.  There was a great mix of dishes prepared and everyone had fun with the theme.  One thing is for sure and I have said it before, we have great cooks in this club and our men are so lucky.  How fast can you clear a table?  Well in record time is the answer.  TCT members swept the food from the tables, cleaned the kitchen and transferred the leftover food back to their respective RV’s and were back at the table before you could even say “CHASE THE  ACE.”.   Well almost!

 Before the card game got started we had a 50/50 chance drawing.  Gail & Billy won. This is the second time they have won and ironically at the same campground.  They await our next campout at Okeechobee Landing. 

 Sunday morning we met at the Wilson’s for our goodbye breakfast and to wish everyone happy and safe travels.   

FUTURE

The TCT’s will travel to Lazy Days in Tampa for our February campout.  An application was given to everyone with instructions to contact Lazy Days by the 20th of January to make your own reservations.  If you haven’t by now, you may have difficulty getting your site.   But try!

 Barbara Wilson, Meal Coordinator will coordinate our February “Polish” pot luck meal to be served at Lazy Days in Tampa.

 Also, while I am discussing the campout schedule, we will be traveling to Camp Florida RV Resort in Lake Placid in March.  Please let Frank know if you will be joining TCT’s for this new campsite.  Frank Daidone

Home: 321-259-3389 or

e-mail: Goofoo@aol.com

 Where are you?

 We have five members that haven’t been camping with us for one reason or another. We miss you!  Put us on your calendar ASAP.  See ya next month – BE THERE!