2013 FMCA Brooksville, Florida SEA Rally Recap

Memories of past rallies and caravans
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2013 FMCA Brooksville, Florida SEA Rally Recap

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We rendezvoused at our regular location, 13 coaches strong, greeted old friends and welcomed the newbies aboard. The absence of our long time hosts Logan & Andy Mathis was most apparent. Logan has been under the weather, but reportedly is on the mend. Filling in for them was Eric and Sue Sandstrom. Eric may be the VP of the Southeast Region, but what's really important is he's a great cook. We all honored his talents by licking our fingers throughout the pot luck supper.

One good thing about only 13 coaches attending, the normal rally allotment of wine for social hour lasted a lot longer. Sue Sandstrom upstaged her husband's cooking escapades by organizing the great spread of finger foods each afternoon at 4 pm sharp. It required three days of effort to finish off the grape squeezings, but it gave us all a "good feeling", so no one minded!

President Dean, announced a change in the National Rally hosted by two gullible couples, the Warmbiers and Boleys, to be held at Fort Dodge, Iowa in June. Our Rally/Caravan Coordinator Ron Warmbier filled us in on the other upcoming rallies scheduled for over hill and dale.

Our group was visited by several Born Free wannabees; it gave us the chance to brag about our coaches and show off all the personal modifications many of us have accomplished. When we tell these folks that some of us are on our third Born Free coach, it speaks volumes about the love affair we have with our traveling bungalows. Speaking of bungalows, one of our members showed up with their "sweet suite" :). I remember another BF sometime back that was called "Seymore". This kind of attachment to an inorganic thing makes one ponder!

The FMCA Rally continues to lose attendees. The first year Sue and I went to Brooksville there were 2800 RVs at the airport grounds. As each year went by, there was more and more room at the inn. This year the numbers have succumbed to just 800+ coaches. One could really see the difference on the grounds, especially in the vendor's tent where the absence of dealers was most apparent. To make a long story short, FMCA can no longer meet the expenses of the airport location. While renegotiation's are in progress, their success is in doubt; the rally most likely will be held somewhere else next year.

Brooksville, and the FMCA Rally there, has a reputation for weather inhospitable to both man and beast. In years past if we weren't experiencing temps akin to absolute zero, we were getting pelted by Noah's deluge or blown away by an F1 on the Fujita scale. But this year, in spite of a brief shower, the weather was too good to be true, a great way to top off our yearly pilgrimage to the Brooksville airport.

For those that couldn't attend, we missed your company, but enjoyed your share of the wine!

Click on this link to view 23 photos taken by Joel Lefkowitz: https://picasaweb.google.com/1001890014 ... _mGv6fi2gE

George Boley, reporting from the East Runway.

NOTE! This recap was posted for the author by the Website Administrator (bfadmin-2).
Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Website Forum Administrators
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