CALOOSA WINNIES

December 2009 Outing

Pictures of the outing by Nancy Miller

December 3 – 6, 2009 the Caloosa Winnies and Funtime Travelers met at Oak Haven RV Park at Arcadia, FL for 4 days of fun and friendship! 39 coach families attended which started off with Happy Hour on Thursday at 4:00pm. Hosts for the weekend were Carole & Ed Gies, Jim & Sally Rayburn, Charlie & Ellen Zucker, Nancy & Jerry Miller. We welcomed some guests, Ross & Jan Ziegler, Frank & Gerry Sementilli. The clubhouse was all decorated for our Christmas celebration which set the mood for the weekend. Thursday dinner of Souper Chicken was served by the hosts with all kinds of dishes prepared by our members! We invited the park residents to join us for an Ice Cream Social and bingo games which everyone enjoyed! THANKS to Ed Gies for being our Bingo caller.

Friday morning was our Pancake Breakfast served by the hosts and others who just step in for the fun of plopping the pancakes on the griddle! We love volunteers! Later that morning a shuffleboard tournament was organized for our group and the residents. Most everyone was outside participating which was great fun! Soon an unusual thunderstorm brewed and we had to leave the courts. Inside several of the ladies made some Christmas ornaments from beads which turned out just great! Since the rest of the day it rained – which it hardly ever does in Florida during December, some of the group went shopping and others hung around and chatted in the clubhouse. At 4:00pm we convened at the clubhouse for Happy Hour, then caravanned to Trattoria Limoncello, a local Italian restaurant for dinner. Back at the clubhouse our game of “Name That Tune” began about 8:00pm. Teams were formed and they had to guess the title of songs and singers to accumulate points from the 50’s & 60’s music. The winning team of Doris Palmer, Diane Cipolla, Bob Ross & Cliff Spiller took home the prizes! THANKS to Jerry Miller for putting together the songs!

Saturday morning a Pot-Luck Breakfast was started at 8:30am with so much great food and we cleaned all the plates! Business meetings followed, with a lot of discussion about our state rally next March and also about GNR plans. A slate of officers for 2010 was voted on with the following people to be installed in January: President, Charlie & Ellen Zucker; Vice President, Pete & Corinne Wightman; Secretary, Jim & Sally Rayburn; Treasurer, Jim & Jane O’Neill. We were delighted to welcome to membership the Zieglers and Sementillis as they decided to join the Caloosas! The afternoon was free time for shopping, doing RV work, and visiting with friends.

At 4:00pm everyone gathered at the clubhouse for Happy Hour, followed by a Ham Dinner complete with all the great dishes prepared by all our good cooks! At 7:00pm we held our annual “Pound Auction”. Each person was asked to bring a pound package of something wrapped. Soon our auctioneers appeared on the scene to begin the bidding! Charlie Zucker was dressed in an elf outfit which was just hysterical! Mike Sofarelli took the microphone and described what he thought might just be in the packages. One package he described as a big package of Provolone cheese imported from Italy turned out to be a big skein of yarn!!

Ed Tyndall was the elf who collected the money after the prizes were awarded from the bids – those 3 elves did such an outstanding job! It is a tradition that one of our group always has to get the package of toilet paper and Bill Fuss was again the high bidder on that package! It was noted that Larry Ireland got 2 packages of old rusty bolts – so are we starting another tradition here? The side splitting laughter was heard all over the park – the entire 3 hours was just a BLAST! The best part was we collected $ 1,200 total to be given as our donation to the local food banks. THANKS to everyone who donated to our auction and for their GREAT generosity.

Sunday morning we had our traditional breakfast of donuts, bagel, rolls, and fruit before we went our separate ways. It was another GREAT weekend and sent us off with that great Christmas spirit! We invite anyone traveling in our area to join us for a weekend! We love visitors! Come to our March Rally in Orlando, Florida March 11 – 14, 2010! You’ll be glad you did!

Nancy Miller
239-565-3115