Winnebago Florida State Rally

Tuesday-Sunday, February 21-26, 2017
The time has arrived though preparations have been going on for a  long time.  This will be the very last Florida State Rally as the WinnieGators (the state club) was not able to fill a full slate of officers so they will began the process of disbanding the club, returning the charter and disposing of all the items that belong to the club immediately after this rally ends.  It is a sad day but we were wanting to make this one extra special to end on a good note

Our club - the Mid Florida Winnies - was in charge of registration and goodie bags plus we supplied 30 gift baskets for the door prizes (our great effort brought far more participation from other clubs too so there were in the end 150 prizes) plus we contributed four gifts for the Friendship Walk.  Several of us helped with one of the dinners and a couple also helped with the games.  So we were definitely quite involved.  I believe there were 29 coaches there from our club

This is a picture of our club, MFW, taken on Friday

Birthday Celebration Luncheon

Monday, February 20, 2017

We belong to a group of friends who all were and continue to be members of the Keystone Winnies from the eastern area of Pennsylvania.  We met several of them when we went on the Grand Circle Caravan way back in 2005 and became close friends with Frank and Bette Foulke who are part of the group.  As the years have gone by, we have become "members" and do many things with them during the season here in Florida.  Several are here at Hillcrest, a couple are at American Condo, and the others are scattered around the area.

Over the years we have introduced them all to bd Mongolian Grill a favorite restaurant of ours that opened 25 years ago just a few blocks from our church and home.  We loved it then and were thrilled when a branch opened in Lakeland.  Now it is tradition for us all to gather there once in January, February and March to celebrate the birthdays of those who celebrate that month.

Today we caravaned over to celebrate 5 birthdays

Dorothy Beers, Ron Alesin, Walt Novitzky and Harold Zimmerman (Mike Mihalik celebrates his 1/2 year then but refused to get in the picture)

Twenty-one of us gathered in the private room after choosing our foods and getting them grilled

Our server was wonderful and at one point all of the servers including the manager came in and sang happy birthday to the bunch and gave them little hot fudge sundaes.  

We had a fantastic time together and then before we all went our separate ways we gathered outside for this picture

Missions Yard Sale

Friday/Saturday, February 17 and 18, 2017

I forgot to take my camera down to the patio and clubhouse when we were setting up on Friday and then selling on Saturday but the last two days have been hectic yet marvelously successful.

Over 40 people showed up on those two days to help with set up, selling and clean-up.  We started at 7:15 am on Friday, sold till noon on Saturday and had the whole place cleaned up and put back in order before 1:30 pm!!!!!!!!!!!!  What an amazing bunch and what an amazing amount of work they get done.

Before we got started our chair, Berta Mercer, had expressed real concern because she had very little stored (usually her shed is packed as is her second bedroom).  In fact, she thought maybe we'd finally reached the point where there wouldn't be enough to make it worthwhile.

But then the stuff started rolling in from residents, a few things here and a few things there and the next thing we knew we had full tables both inside and out.  Maybe not quite as much as we had in December but certainly lots of stuff.

Every baked good was sold before the sale ended, loads of hot dogs and hamburgers were sold to visitors and residents and lots of the furniture and other items were gone.  People just coming and coming to look and buy and hang around to chat a bit.

The end result?  We made $3, 265!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an amazing park to accomplish this in a day and a half.  WOW!!

Cousins Come for a Visit

Monday, February 13-Wednesday, February 15, 2017
What fun we've had the last couple of days!!!!  Len and Sarah Muller arrived Monday before supper and left early on Thursday morning.  We had set up the motorhome on a lot here at the park where they took up residence in the evenings and early morning, but the rest of the time we talked, ate, walked and had a terrific time sharing together.  It was hard to see them leave.

We took them to a few of our favorite restaurants including DiMaggios That's Amore for a wonderful Valentine Day dinner and of course to Parksdale Farms for a strawberry sundae.  Here they are posing on the strawberry throne with all the garb on.

Sarah has been doing a lot of genealogical research on the MacRae side of the family so we had lots to talk about and I had lots of pictures and other stuff to share that I've gotten from my mom.  Her dad, my mom along with 2 other sisters made up the MacRae family that we all came from.  Since her dad and my mom did loads of stuff together while growing up including double dating there were many stories that could be shared that either she had heard or I had about life when they were growing up.

We'll be back together again at the Cousins Weekend in October and possibly do some visiting of cousins in Ontario in September together.  We've been in contact with several as the result of one of our grandfathers nieces dying suddenly right after Christmas.  She had been sharing things with us and Sarah had had several long conversations with her in the month before she died.  So many family members were writing tributes on her Facebook page that we were able to make some new connections.

A Visit with the Rumseys at Disney

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Bill and Nancy Rumsey are enjoying a couple of weeks at a Disney resort and getting out for 4 hours or so each day with their year passes.  They sent us a note to let us know they were there and we quickly called and made arrangements to spend some time with them at Epcot.  What a delightful day!!  

Bill isn't up and ready to go till around 11 or later so we were able to attend choir practice and then drive over to Epcot and meet them near the entrance at noon. It was so wonderful to see them again. Bill is now using a motorized chair for ease in getting around but his Parkinson's is definitely taking a toll on him.  He has had one round of deep brain surgery and had come down to Mayo for his check up with hope he might qualify for the surgery on the other side but they said he still isn't "bad" enough for that.

He has a great attitude and is learning to enjoy every moment given to him.  Like today.  We were able to go to Soarin and take the ride using the fast passes we had a arranged.  It is a new one that we had already seen once but both of us agreed it is something you need to see over and over.   So much gorgeous scenery as you basically fly around the world seeing such places as the opera house in Sydney, Australia; the Taj Mahal in India; the gorgeous blue seas around Tahiti; etc.

We arrived at the Land a little early so decided to try getting on the Living with the Land ride before hand. What fun to discover that the wheelchair put us at the front of the line.  So we had no problem fitting that ride into the schedule.  Here is a picture Ken took while we were on it.

We had already made arrangements to eat in Italy at the Pizza place in the back - a spot we've never been before but sure enjoyed.  We had salads and shared the pizza and lots of conversation.  They wanted to know how the family was doing, especially Dan, and of course we wanted to catch up on theirs as well.  

As we were walking out of that area the street entertainer came out to do his mime show using balls, net etc.  so we stayed to watch it and made note of how he involved the kids.  We'll try and include that in our plans when we take Anders cause I think he'll really enjoy it and will probably be given a chance to toss a ball into the net.

By the time we were done with all of this Bill was reaching his limit so he and Nancy left but we decided to hang out a bit longer so we could do Spaceship Earth and a couple of other things plus just enjoy the surroundings.  It really is a lovely place to visit with all kinds of things to see even if you don't get on a ride.  Besides, it was a gorgeous day.  But the best part of the day was having time with the Rumseys!!!!!