News: Florida

Florida Winnie Gators
State Club
By Nancy Miller

May 14 – 16, 2010 was the weekend for the Winnie Gators to once again share a few days of meetings and FUN! Early arrivals began on May 12 at Southern Palms RV Resort in Eustis, FL with a total of 51 coaches attending. Thursday evening happy hour was held. Many members found local restaurants for dinner and returned to the clubhouse to play cards and games and spend time together.

Friday the executive committee meeting was held. The activity of the day was chapter competition building and decorating a balsa wood airplane to be used in the flying contest later in the evening. The Board of Directors meeting was held with nine chapters represented.

Happy hour commenced with a raffle in progress. Damaris Travers and Butch and Pat Crosby, members of South Florida Winnie Gators chapter, made a grand entrance to sell tickets dressed in costumes made from lamp shades and a curtain rod complete with drapes! You HAD to be there to see it! Ticket sales were brisk and the winners were drawn and claimed lots of great prizes! Our THANKS to our trio for providing so much FUN for the group! Dinner was served by our favorite caterers, Rainbow Catering.

The contest for the chapter Airplane Flying Contest was ready to start! The judges awarded prizes to the best decorated plane which was given to South Florida Winnie Gators! Next it was time to FLY . . . And fly they did! There was loud cheering for each team and the winner was Funtime Travelers John Lanham! Medals were presented to the entire Funtimers team! The remainder of the evening the group played various games for fun.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, breakfast was served, followed by the General Membership Meeting. Reports and reviews of the March rally were discussed. We were delighted with the results. THANKS to everyone who participated at our rally, especially our tireless workers! The afternoon offered free time to explore the area and spend time visiting with friends.

Happy hour was on tap for the group, a money raffle was held with three happy winners! After a delicious dinner, we were ready for the evening activity. The Winnie Gators horse races – complete with horses decorated that were made from string mops! Each horse had a volunteer "jockey," complete with cowboy hat and feather duster "whip." Bets were placed from the audience and the races were off and running! There were so many people laughing and cheering on their favorite horse, the noise level was just wonderful! People having FUN!! At the conclusion of the races, things calmed down to a dull roar with cards and games enjoyed by all!

Sunday Southern Palms displayed their hospitality and thanks to our club by providing us with donuts and coffee. Soon it was time to say "happy trails" to all our friends – until we rendezvous at GNR or in the fall.

We invite any Winnebago/Itasca owners to join us at any of our meetings which are on our Web Site: www.winniegators.org as well as Who's Inviting Travelers on the WIT Web Site. Come visit with us at GNR in the Florida Row!

DuBol Winnies
Local Chapter
By Donna Weitzel

February
The Jacksonville, FL RV Show in February showed a lot of new innovations in coaches. DuBol Winnies had 26 members and two honorary members attending the show and helping to talk up the "RV lifestyle" and answer questions in general on RVing.

March
The Chapter was also very busy in March of 2010. Sixteen coaches gathered at the Orlando Fairgrounds two days prior to the Florida Winnegator State Rally in March. This is the biggest State Winnebago Rally. Only GNR exceeds it in size and duration. Every chapter in FL is assigned a duty in order to make the Rally the big success it always is. We are in charge of the stage and table decorations for over 600 attendees. The theme "Welcome to Bago Bago Island" was a great success. A picture of the stage is attached. We are always amazed at the energy and tireless participation of our members when called to do a big task.

A week after the Rally, nine ladies in the chapter (who are from the Jacksonville area and play in a once-a-month card get-together), drove to Tampa and went on a five-day cruise to Costa Maya and Cozumel on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. This was a ladies only outing. The fellas were great to "bach it" and take care of the home fronts during the cruise. A great time was had by all. In fact, the group wants to do it again next year – with a new destination.

April
In April we camped at a great new RV park in Brunswick, GA. The Coastal Georgia RV Park has been open about a year. We highly recommend the park. It has great lighting, paved sites, pool, small lake, and lots to do. Check out their Web Site.

Panhandle Winnies
Local Chapter
By Kathy Meader

The Panhandle Winnies met at Campground of the South in Gulfport, Mississippi for our May 7 –9 campout. We had 14 rigs present. Early birds attended dinner at Olive Garden on Thursday. Friday we had a potluck dinner with guests Harry and Ann Lane, members of the Mississippi chapter. We were introduced to Linda Rankin, Bill Alumbaugh's fiancée. She is a fun person and we look forward to having her with us for many more campouts. Some of our group tested their luck at the casinos while some did a little shopping. The ones that stayed behind met at the clubhouse to socialize and play games. Saturday we had a potluck breakfast followed by our business meeting. After cleanup, we got together for beanbag baseball. It was men against women and the men definitely won bragging rights as the women made only one run! Bill Alumbaugh hosted a social hour afterward. Saturday we had dinner at Golden Corral followed by games in the clubhouse. A continental breakfast was provided by the wagonmasters before everyone departed.

Our next campout is September 17 – 19 at Sunset King RV Resort.

Mid Florida Winnies
Local Chapter

Our chapter is 36 years young and we are mighty proud of it! Our April campout at Grand Lake RV and Golf Resort in Orange Lake was a celebration of our 36th anniversary, and we had 16 coaches attending. We were also excited to welcome three new members to our group: Bob and Glenda Christian, Frank and Susan Kiefer, and Fred and Rosemarie Klepes. Last month, at our meeting at the Florida State Rally, we welcomed three other members: David and Pat Fournier, Ted and Sally Hungerford, and Pete Buttrick. That's quite exciting . . . six new members in two months . . . we must be doing something right!

The hosts for this campout were our officers - the Zopffs, Rumrills and Wilsons, and a fine job they did. We also had an extra special treat this campout . . . our sponsor, Suncoast RV of Winter Garden, paid for a good part of our meals to help make our anniversary celebration the fun time it was!

We gathered one day for some games of beanbag baseball with the guys against the gals. The gals really had the guys flamboozled on the first game . . . the girls won 16 runs to 7! The gals all won a prize for their hard work and success. The guys asked for a rematch . . . they got their act together by then and beat the gals 35 to 28 to redeem themselves! We also played Pokeno, a game which is described as a combination of keno and bingo. On our last evening, one of our members, Margie Whiddon, treated us to a session on "What to do with your photographs." Margie does some beautiful digital scrapbooking and had some fantastic samples of things she does on the computer. Margie gave many of us the itch to get started on using the computer for scrapbooking, making cards, etc.

If you are going to be in the mid-Florida area, please try to join us at a campout . . . we would love to see you!

Tom and Sharon Zopff 352-638-2910

Seaside Winnies
Local Chapter

LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY! Our May rally was wild! Jim and Dree Stoodley hosted our last gathering before our summer break at Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, FL. We had ten coaches with seven arriving on Sunday, our early day. Guests Donna and Ed Sarhan have joined our club.

The KOA campground was affiliated with Lion Country Safari so we were able to take the driving tour of the attraction as part of our camping price. Many of us took the tour on Monday. The animals (lions, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, and many other species) were roaming around the vehicles as we drove through the "wilderness." It was a very unique experience.

Monday Jim and Dree served us all a great BBQ supper followed by 'spoon and egg' races. An impromptu egg toss inevitably followed. After that, a bunch of us headed to the pool for a nice refreshing dip.

Tuesday we caravanned to Norton Museum of Art before having lunch at Bellagio II in West Palm Beach. Later, Dree had scheduled a kite flying contest (the breezes were perfect and Steve had his kite as far as the string would allow!!) and a bubble gum blowing contest (Dree was the best bubble blower by far!) along with a trivia-filled evening.

Wednesday the guys played golf and the ladies shopped and had lunch at Panera's. We had our business meeting in the afternoon and then we turned in the trivia sheets that Dree had given us when we arrived. She then awarded prizes for the winners of the various contests. After a little AA and a short rest, we headed out to Carraba's for supper.

Most of us will not be seeing each other again until October so extra hugs were in order.

Let's all have a safe, healthy summer. See you in October.

South Florida Winnie Gators
Local Chapter
By Marlene Sholtes

Our May campout was held at Neopolitan Cove RV Resort in Naples. This campground is beautifully landscaped and has a nice, but small hall, kitchen, and pool. We had a small, cozy group this month, only 14 coaches and one guest coach attended. Mike and Vicki Aloise visited us for the first time in their motor home. Last month, they lived nearby and visited with us during the day. On Friday Marlene Sholtes organized a carpool to a nearby store, "The Best of Everything" and lunch for the ladies. We bought jewelry and trinkets we did not know we needed! We then walked over to Mel's Diner and had our lunch. Such a treat! The guys were on their own and also went out to lunch. We had our 50/50 Happy Hour in the afternoon and the new raffle Babes-In-Training, Barbara von Mosch and Cheryl Conito, sold tickets. The lucky winners were Harley Mays, Harvey Peacock, and Ed Miles. Our entertainment for the evening was card bingo led by Charlie and Damaris Travers and Joan Gill. The many winners were: a three-way split with Joe Sholtes, Cheryl Conito, and Jack Fantelli; Bob Armstrong; a two-way split with Becky Bunn and Chuck Seager; and Rick Bunn.

After breakfast Joe Sholtes led a group in making CD spinners. They all came out beautiful and many were put to use immediately. For happy hour, the Life-of-the-Party Raffle Babes, Becky Bunn and Damaris Travers, entertained us as they sold tickets for prizes. So much food, so little time!

Later in the evening, we had a Patriotic Red, White and Blue Yankee Trader game. Gifts wrapped in paper bags placed on a table were chosen when your ticket number was called or you would select a gift that someone had already chosen. This becomes quite "spirited" because some gifts were more popular and passed around the room a few times. As usual, the Rowdy Bunch had a good time!

Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day with Mimosas accompanied by bagels and cream cheese. We then had our monthly Board of Directors and Membership Meetings. We parted company until our next fun-filled campout at Jolly Roger Campground in the Keys!

Winnebago-Itasca Travelers