FL: Mid-Florida Winnies

December Campout

This was a great campout. We had been here before but you really missed some fun times if you missed this one. We had 11 coaches and that included our great friends Susan & Frank Kiefer. Since they had sold their coach, they had a travel trailer brought in and set up so they could join us for the festivities. There were several of us that arrived on Sunday to make it a little bit longer of a trip. We got together for an informal Happy Hour by Bob and Glenda Christians’ coach. Everyone was in attendance by Monday afternoon. We again had the Happy Hour outside to make if more comfortable for all. The weather was really nice the first day or two. It got a little chilly but nothing that we couldn’t handle.

Some went out exploring on Monday and Tuesday afternoon. They investigated the local area of Tavares and Mt. Dora. A park in Eustis had some really nice lights and some went out to view them one night. Our hosts, the Parks and Roudebush’s cooked a ham for Tuesday evening and everyone brought their own sides for a Christmas meal. We sold raffle tickets for our two $50.00 gift cards to benefit our charity throughout the campout until the drawing on Wednesday evening. In the evening several of us gathered around a small campfire to enjoy the great weather. Wednesday morning our hosts offered scrambled eggs and turkey and pork link sausages along with juice and left over ham from our Tuesday evening meal. We had our business meeting immediately after our meal and Beverley and Michael O’Neil joined us for that. We had our 50/50 drawing during the meeting and Irene LaFlamme won $40. There was more exploring by the members that afternoon. Our Happy Hour Wednesday was inside since it had decided to rain some with a cold front coming through. Frank and Susan also offered some items for sale to the club members to augment their other supplies. During this sale, the Kiefer’s decided to allow people to give a donation to our charity which they had supported for many years and an extra $22.00 was collected. Wednesday evening’s meal consisted of ham, turkey and London broil sandwiches from Publix with chips provided by Bob Berube along with potato salad and coleslaw. We had a rousing game of card bingo and a Christmas Carol sing along lead by Jeff Roudebush after. Everyone had a great time.

Our Christmas raffle raised $135.00 for our charity and Frank Kiefer won the first gift card and he selected the Target card. The Lowe’s gift card was won by Bob Berube. The total money raised for the charity during this campout was $202.00. We did a continental breakfast on Thursday consisting of scones, mini muffins and donut holes from Publix. Everyone had the opportunity to collect some extra food for the road with some leftover sandwiches from the night before. Everyone talked and said their goodbyes. Our next campout is on January 11-14 at Sarasota Fairgrounds. 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. The cost is $25.00 per night and you can stay extra days at the rally rate just let Bill know that information. If you come in on Sunday you will have to be there by 2 PM so that we can go in the park together.

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.