FL: Mid-Florida Winnies

January Campout

This was a great campout for our annual chile cookoff! We used to hold our State Rallies here at the Sarasota Fairgrounds and it looks much the same as it did in those days just without the many coaches we had from all over the state. We had 15 coaches in total with 10 arriving on Sunday to enjoy the wonderful weather and the many fun things to do in the surrounding area. Since the fairgrounds were virtually empty our dogs really had a great time running all over the place every day. I think the Horner’s dog Petey enjoyed the open spaces as well as they had some runs together. Some went out exploring Sunday afternoon and Monday. We had a happy hour both days and it was fun catching up with friends. We had some visitors from the Sun Coast chapter join us and that was really nice. I heard that some found a local brewery to investigate.

Our hosts, the Monteleone’s and LaFlamme’s were hosting our Great Chili cook off Tuesday night with 5 entrants and some extra chili provided by the Schilp’s we had plenty of food and they provided brown bread (a New England favorite) as a compliment to the chili. Everyone provided a side of their own and we all had the opportunity to vote on the chili we liked the best. When all the votes were cast Mary Ann Long won the much coveted trophy. We had cookies for desert.

Wednesday morning our hosts offered sausage gravy and biscuits with homemade oatmeal with all the fixins. We sold 50/50 tickets and had enough to have two drawings. We gave $40 to the charity and we had a $20 drawing that went to Ken Ledford and a $15 drawing that went to Glenda Christian. Following the meal we had our business meeting and Chuck Smalley join us for the meeting as he had to do the audit with Jeff Roudebush after the meeting.
Our Happy Hour Wednesday was inside since it was starting to turn a little cooler. Wednesday evening’s meal consisted of fried chicken from the Publix deli and everyone provided their own sides to accompany the meal. There were little cheese cake cups for desert.

We did a continental breakfast on Thursday consisting of muffins and left over cheese cake cups with coffee and tea. Everyone had the opportunity to collect some extra food for the road with some leftover chicken from the night before. Everyone talked and said their goodbyes. Our next campout is on February 22 to 25 at Suwannee River Rendezvous in Mayo. You need to make your own reservations for this one but consider if you come in on Friday before you might win the Chicken poop bingo or the pigeon race. It should be fun.

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.