Smoke Signal March 2017

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Edmund Flynn
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Click to view this email in a browser Smoke Signal March 2017 Nomads Chapter of Special Military Active Recreational Travelers (S*M*A*R*T) President: Glen Wilkinson ourhomeonwheels@hotmail.

net President... Glen Wilkinson Our President Glen, is in Tampa tending his wife Sharon as she is undergoing treatment for Cancer.

1 Click to view this in a browser Smoke Signal March 2017 Nomads Chapter of Special Military Active Recreational Travelers (S*M*A*R*T) President: Glen Wilkinson ourhomeonwheels@hotmail.com Vice President: Paul Rider Secretary/ Treasurer: Jana Nunemaker Muster Master: Rick Nunemaker Smoke Signal Editor: Doug Blaha afchap@pjrider.com rjnunemaker1@gmail.com rjnunemaker1@gmail.com dlblaha@cox.net President... Glen Wilkinson Our President Glen, is in Tampa tending his wife Sharon as she is undergoing treatment for Cancer. We wish them both well and please keep them in our thoughts and prayers. Vice President... Paul Rider Greetings NOMADS! Since we returned to East Texas after spending Christmas and New Years with our children in Alabama, we have been around our home base most of the time with a couple of short journeys with our state and local Winnebago groups. We also had to have some repairs re-done on the motor home. On the way to National last September we broke down in Oklahoma with bad u-joints and a damaged drive shaft. In early February it started coming apart again and had to have more attention. Our normal service shop found plenty of evidence of gross incompetence in the work done in September. They could not believe we had made it 4,000 miles since

2 then without it totally falling out, but of course it was nothing more money wouldn t fix done properly this time we hope!! Between my writing this and your reading, we will have tested the newly repaired driveline by traveling to a muster with the SMART Texan Chapter at Choctaw Casino in Durant OK. That is a very nice RV park, and a great place for SMART musters! In early May we will be headed to the SMW Regional Muster in Kerrville TX, and plan to follow that up with some visiting of family and friends in New Mexico and West Texas before returning to our East Texas home base. We hope to see some NOMADS along the way! Secretary/ Treasurer... Jana Nunemaker Secretary Report: Please WELCOME our newest members of the Nomads - Bob & Cindy Petitt David & Sallie Wetzel If you see them on your travels, give them a big Nomad welcome! Treasurer Report: SAVINGS ACCOUNT Beginning balance $ Income Dividends $0.51 Expenses $0.00 Ending balance $ CHECKING ACCOUNT Beginning balance $ Income Regular Dues $ New Member Dues $10.00 Misc Income $5.00 Dividends $0.06 Expenses Postage $2.72

Website $25.00 Ending balance 2-18-17 $653.12 Jana Nunemaker, Secretary and Treasurer Nomad's Chapter Web Page Everyone should be familiar with our Nomad chapter website.

3 Website $25.00 Ending balance $ Jana Nunemaker, Secretary and Treasurer Nomad's Chapter Web Page Everyone should be familiar with our Nomad chapter website. It is easily reached via the SMART Web Site under Chapter links and has our roster and other good info. Checkout the Comment Section. Currently it resembles all the other Chapter Web sites but could use some sprucing up. Please send a few good photos to our Chapter website delegate (Glen Wilkinson) that we could use to personalize it a little. Maybe at our next muster we can get a group photo. Nomad Web site Nomads Travel and End or Year 2016 Plans The purpose of this section is so we can connect more easily with one another when we are traveling. Have fun! Be Safe and have a mini-muster when you can! Mac & Renae Shea. Happy New Year all. The Sheas are headed who knows where this year? Going in a general west/north west direction starting the last week in March. Our 1st stop will be New Orleans with our oldest grandson who wants to see the WW11 museum. Then west into TX. with plans to do Big Bend NP. While we are in Tx. we hope to do their regional. Anyone else going give us a shout. Happy Trails, Melody & Paul Thomas. We checked into the Maxwell-Gunter AFB FamCamp in Montgomery, Alabama, in February. The weather is awful and severe warnings are on

4 the horizon. We hope it doesn't get any worse! We had hoped to stay here a week but there were only two days open. The Officer Candidate School will be graduating students this week and the campground is fully booked. If we have to leave on Wednesday, we'll look for another place in the area. There's a lot to see in this area and we don't want to leave until we've seen it. We plan on tootling around Alabama, Georgia, and Florida through May, then heading back up to New York to finish selling our house. Then we will truly be nomads. All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Stand up for what you believe in. Chuck and Diana Tamborino. Chuck & Diana Tamborino hope to be traveling West on our much delayed vacation, but we aren't sure yet. Any snowbirds or spring travelers on I-59/20 or I-65 through Birmingham, give us a call. Maybe we can at least meet for a cup of coffee! Safe travels all! Shirley Newton. At Ft Bliss heading to FMCA Rally in Tucson then into Mexico with Fantasy FMCA group. Did Daddy Bush Museum in College Station on the way here. If you have not seen it, you must. See my Facebook page for pictures. Local Musters till another grandson wedding in July. I'm ready for Rayne. Going early to do day trips before. See you there. Marty and Sue McMahon from North Las Vegas. We are currently in Uchee Creek Army Campground, the FAMCAMP for Ft Benning Georgia. Here is our travel plans for the next two months; 1 to 4 March - Wilderness RV Park in Robertsdale, AL. Just to spend a couple of days in Southern Alabama. 5 to 10 March - Lincoln Parish Park in Rustin, LA. Spend time with the SMART CAJUNs. 27 to 31 March - the Passport America Rally in Tucson, AZ. Our first PA rally. 2 to 7 April - SMART SW Region Muster in Bakersfield RV Resort Bakersfield, CA. Our first SMART Region Muster. 24 to 28 April - SMART Battle Born Spring Rally in Wine Ridge RV Resort Pahrump,

5 NV. OUR FIRST MUSTER AS A NEW CHAPTER. There is still room and we would love to have some NOMADS spend time with us. Check the SMART website or me for an application. The in-between time we will be traveling where the wind takes us or where we are invited. I know I went farther than the 1st Quarter but I wanted everyone to know about new Battle Born Chapter and give them a chance to participate. David and Sallie Wetzel. March begins with visiting several Corp of Engineers (COE) Campgrounds in Alabama and attending the SMART White Sands Muster in Bonifay, FL. During April and May we'll continue visiting more COE campgrounds in Alabama, along with a some State Parks in the Florida Pan Handle. June and July will be spent visiting two National Parks: Davis Bayou Campground in Mississippi and Fort Pickens Campground in Pensacola, FL (which includes the Pensacola Blue Angels Air Show weekend). In August and September, we'll stick fairly close to home as we finalize our transition from part-time to full-time beginning October 1st. Doug and Lila Blaha. We attended our grand daughter's College graduation ceremony in New England recently and one of the speakers used an interesting phrase. "If you want to make God laugh, make a plan!". Well we gave God a good chuckle. We returned from the graduation with serious head colds. The entire month of February was a wash. We cancelled our winter MH trip to Florida and a 10 day cruise to the Panama Canal. We are now fully recovered and ready to travel. Our "Plan" now is, God willing, to remain at home in Virginia until May then head for Minnesota, join The Calgary Stampede caravan in June and attend the Eclipse Muster with the Rocky Tops in August. Alice & Charlie Anderson Our RVing has slowed down some but not for any specific reason. Just haven't had a place calling us. That said, we did order a new truck this month, and model determined by capability to pull the 5th wheel, so there will have to be some shake down runs. Just no plans on the board. Of course, as many know summer will find us in the Finger Lakes. Let us know if you are in the area. Richard and Kitty Moore. Presently we are parked at Smith Lake Army Campground Ft Bragg NC. Very quiet here right now with lots of empty sites. This is a nice stop located off post but easy off/on to Rte 95. Commissary and Exchange shopping located very close at Ft Bragg. Leaving here on Saturday, we will be at Pelican s Roost RV Park Mayport FL. This is one of our favorite places to visit in Florida. Again, convenient Commissary and Exchange shopping (located offbase) and some very good seafood restaurants. I enjoy watching the Naval Base incoming and outgoing ship traffic and the in/out

6 commercial shipping on the far side of the St Johns River. We will then spend six days at a State Park in Orlando Florida where Kitty and I will try to use up 4 days worth of passes to the Disney Theme Parks. On to McDill AFB Tampa for some family and friends visiting and, of course, more seafood. One more weeklong stop in Spring Hill Florida for a mini-reunion with my sister who lives there and my brother, a 26 yr Army guy who retired at Ft Riley, Kansas and then decided to stay in the area and now lives in Junction City. Arriving home on 10 April, we will take a week and a half getting some Doctor s visits out of the way and taking care of some house issues and be on our way for our annual summer trek to New England. After visiting family and friends in NH and Maine, we will park for two months at Wompatuck State Park in Hingham MA. This is a beautiful shaded park just south of Boston and one of only three state parks in Massachusetts that offers 110 V electrical. Stop by and visit; it s a great campground ($21.00p/nite) to take in the sights and sounds of Boston and Cape Cod is within an easy daily reach. The local public transit system (MBTA) is right outside the park. Contact me for more park info. The last week in July, we will take the coach to Rhode Island for a week of boondocking camping to meet up with submarine shipmates from back in the day. Submariner s from California fly in to meet and greet shipmates from the past; Canadian submariner s come down from Halifax, Nova Scotia to participate with their American brothers. We sit under a big shade tree with our favorite beverage and socialize. If you are in the area and would like to show up as a guest, contact me. It is family-oriented (kids allowed) and free with three square meals a day. August 7 th will find us heading west to Kansas to enjoy a week of camping at Army Corps of Engineers, Milford Rolling Hills West in the Junction City Kansas area. We have been there previously and it is a well kept park with scenic views of the lake. August 27 will find us for a week at Perry State Park in Ozawkie, Kansas. Kitty s grand-daughter and family reside in Shawnee. It has been close to five years since we seen them last and there is a new G-grand-son that we have not seen yet, so really looking forward to this visit. September 6 will find us in Naperville Illinois. My USS Rasher Association will be getting together for a five day reunion of catching up with shipmates from the past. USS Rasher was my 1 st submarine from way back in This boat was my stepping stone into the world as an 18-yr old kid fresh out of a Boston High School. Loved it so much, went on to serve on four more boats. We ll get home about mid-sept., take a short break and are planning to be in Rayne LA for the SMART Muster in October. See you there! Roger and Meg Bruce. Meg and I are headed for Fort Lauderdale today for a

7 Caribbean cruise. Some of you may know of Sandi Patty the Christian singer. She is hosting the cruise and concert in Puerto Rico. We'll be back in time for the SMW Regional in Kerrville, TX. Hope to see many of you there. Rick and Jana Nunemaker. Hello from Arkansas! Since the last Smoke Signal we have traveled from Texas to Arizona. We have enjoyed meeting many Nomads along the way. We were able to attend 2 Arizona Tumbleweed Musters and enjoyed their company. Unfortunately, a family emergency brought us to north-central Arkansas for most of the spring and summer. So if you are in the area, let us know. We would love to get together. Jon and Nancy Katin SMART Immediate Past National President. A big hello to all our friends in the Nomad Chapter. As I write this , we are sitting in Apache Junction, Arizona. We made day trips to both the National Good Sam Rally at the Phoenix Raceway and more recently to the FMCA National rally in Chandler, AZ. We leave tomorrow to link up on Sunday with a group, informally known as friends of SMART. I am the volunteer Wagon-master and we go annually the last 2 weeks of March to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. Better known by us gringos, as Rocky Point. It is a spring break haven for all kinds of young and young at heart. It is about 60 miles south of the US border on mainland Mexico at the northern edge of the Sea of Cortez. Fortunately, we have never had any issues befall the group and have been doing it for over 10 years. Our campground has security and is full service, right on the edge of the water. We eat shrimp, eat shrimp and eat shrimp. Weather is currently in the mid 80s. Following the Rocky Point trip, most of us go to the SMART SW Regional muster, this year being held in Bakersfield, Calif. From there, we finally head home to Oregon to be with kids, g'kids and great g'kids! In June, Nancy and I, as Wagon-masters will be heading for Great falls, Montana for a fantastic 36 day SMART caravan to Alberta, Canada covering 7 days at the Calgary Stampede, Waterton Lakes N.P., Yoho N.P. Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Athabasca Ice Fields, Edmonton and Drumheller. Hope to see you all in Rayne, LA.

9 Beautiful English I called an old school friend and asked him what he was doing. He replied that he is working on "Aqua-thermal treatment of ceramics, aluminium and steel under a constrained environment". I was impressed... On further enquiring I learned that he was washing dishes with hot water...under his wife's supervision. The World is Fine -- THE WORLD IS FINE - Author Unknown Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.today I saw a distinguished looking man seated in a downtown Cary store and wished I looked as distinguished. When suddenly he rose to leave, I saw him hobble down the aisle. He had one leg and used a crutch. But as he passed, he smiled at me. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I have two legs; the world is fine. I stopped to buy some candy.the lad who sold it had such charm. I talked with him, he seemed so glad. If I were late, it'd do no harm. And as I left, he said to me, "I thank you, you've been so kind. It's nice to talk with folks like you. You see, "he said, I'm blind." Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I have two eyes; the world is fine. Later while walking down the street, I saw a child I knew. He stood and watched the others play, but he did not know what to do.i stopped a moment and then I said, "Why don't you join them?".he looked ahead without a word. I forgot, he couldn't hear. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I have two ears; the world is fine. With feet to take me where I'd go. With eyes to see the sunset's glow. With ears to hear what I'd know. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine. I've been blessed indeed, the world is fine.

10 Nomads Membership Application You can download the application form on the SMART website. Nomad Membership Application S *M *A *R *T Special Military Active Recreational Travelers

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Smoke Signal September 2017

Click to view this email in a browser Smoke Signal September 2017 Nomads Chapter of Special Military Active Recreational Travelers (S*M*A*R*T) President: Paul Rider Vice President: Vacant Secretary/ Treasurer: