FL: Mid-Florida Winnies

November Mid-Florida Winnies Newsletter

We camped at a new place for our group, Okeechobee KOA. We had 10 coaches in attendance. We had several coaches arrive on Sunday; Parks, Schilp, Smalley, Faherty and Yarnell. On Monday we added Ledford, Menge, Christian and Rumrill. Our President, Gerry and Irene LaFlamme arrived on Tuesday morning. We had good weather for the entire campout except for some wind on the final days.

We had a great informal Happy Hour at Bill and Elaine’s coach on Sunday and Monday. Most of us had never been to the Big O as Lake Okeechobee is known by the locals so we did some exploring.
On Monday Ed and Shirley Parks traveled the lonely road to Lake Placid which is known as the Town of Murals. Lake Placid was recognized as Florida’s most outstanding rural community in 1995 and 1996. In 2013 Reader’s Digest named Lake Placid America’s most interesting town. There are over 50 murals that grace the walls of some really large buildings in Lake Placid. They also have decorated trash receptacles and on some buildings small round pictures of birds. It was a most interesting place to visit. The people are very friendly and the visitor’s center/chamber of commerce workers are very helpful. The murals were started in 1993. If you go buy a book on the murals, they give you information on each mural and tell you what is hidden in some of the murals. Each mural is evaluated each year for damage and all are repaired and a clear coat is added to protect the paint and keep the colors bright and distinct. The largest mural is the Cracker trail cattle drive which is 175’L X 30’H. They had some inventive ways to fund the murals. For this mural they actual sold some of the cattle to Highland County cattlemen so they could put their brands on the cattle for all to see. To take your private virtual tour of the murals, go to http://www.muralsoflakeplacid.com/.

Our hosts, the Monteleones, did not attend this campout. We had to change the dates due to a storm coming across the state that would have made the campout very wet. The Christian’s had offered to co-host and ended up hosting. The Schilp’s stepped up to help. We were on our own after Happy Hour on Monday for our meal. On Tuesday we had another Happy Hour at Bill and Elaine’s. Our evening meal was fried chicken with potato salad and macaroni salad with some coleslaw and cookies for dessert. We had our meal in the hall which made for a much more enjoyable time. We only had 4 to a table so we were distancing. Tuesday night was the bingo game at the campground and Donna Rumrill won the jackpot for the evening.

We did a continental breakfast on Wednesday and had our business meeting with our 50/50 drawing which Shirley Parks won the jackpot. The Yarnell’s had to leave in the afternoon and we were sorry to see them go. Just a note, for anyone interested, we had an anonymous donation of $200 to our charity which will be included in our donation this year. Anyone else interested in making an individual donation can send a check to Chuck Smalley or let us know they want to do this so we will delay sending the final check to the charity. Our Wednesday evening meal consisted of pizza (Bob’s favorite food). We had the leftover breakfast from Wednesday morning for Thursday morning. Everyone talked and said their goodbyes.

Our next campout is in December 14-17 at Southern Palms RV Resort in Eustis. You need to get your information to Bill if you plan to attend and the money for the campout must be sent to Chuck Smalley at 2179 Burnice Drive, Clearwater, FL 33764. You will only send Chuck money for the three days of our rally ($93.24) any other days you will have to call the campground for reservations after you get your site location from Bill.
May the wind always be at your back and the road always be straight and level in front. Please be safe until we meet again.