amblings 974 6 X B L I G Volume 9 une 6 umber 6 Pres.: Terry Taylor, Wife: Barbara, 6 Bermuda Dr., Fleming Island, FL Voice: 94-78-86; -mail: drterrytaylor@comcast.net V. Pres.: udy Wilhour 5--785 ecretary: oyce nos 94-69-8 Treasurer: Laverne Toivonen 9--667 Wagon aster: ames Walters 94-78-88 ditor: Glenn Yearous 94-77-46 D: Ken & herrie isberg 94-75-557 This onth s Hosts are: Tom & umiko Davis Tom and umiko Davis are long time members of ax ambling ams. They joined in 4, just after purchasing their first V, and weathered the hard times the chapter experienced in the mid s. The experience was difficult, but engendered some life long friendships. Tom is a Vietnam era aval aviator. He flew P s around the orth tlantic and editerranean from his Brunswick, aine, homeport. He was in a Brunswick air wing counterpart of the acksonville based P squadrons, and completed three six month deployments to Bermuda, Lajes (in the zores) and ota, pain. He had numerous detachments around the editerranean, orth tlantic, Caribbean and outh tlantic. He also completed a tour as a flight instructor at aufley Field in Pensacola. fter leaving the navy, Tom returned to school, obtained advanced degrees in lectrical ngineering and began a career as a civilian employee of the U.. ir Force esearch Lab system. ost of his career was spent at glin FB, near Fort Walton Beach, FL in the unitions Directorate. There, he worked on a variety of F, Infrared and laser radar autonomous guided weapons seeker programs. He also did a three year sabbatical tour in a Tokyo, apan based in the foreign programs field office of the ir Force Office of cientific esearch. Continued on page 6 C H P T U 6
arly Bird Day, Thursday, 6TH The Georgia Welcome Center was under construc- The perimeter parking was open so we used this tion so our caravan started at the nearby Pilot Truck area to wait to start the caravan. This may be a bet- top. any trucks were parked here and are sleeping ter place to join up than the Welcome Center. Here on their schedule with the Welcome Center closed. we can fuel up any V, and get a breakfast or a drink. Glenn (Christine was at home with sick cat.) had arrived early and parked his small V on the front row of the car area to watch for our members and wave them to the adjacent road to park behind the building. Our trip to the campground was uneventful. Our Tom had a meeting at : p.m. to show us the few numbers still filled up the available parking meeting room and plan the days of the camp out. while we stopped to register. They were ready for us. Then the real important decision was made as to Glenn with his small V usually is the Tail-end Charlie because he can easily park on a shoulder. where we would eat supper. We had a long wait to have a table. fter an hour and twenty two minutes, we are Glenn has a visitor at his house, enny Craig. o he seated so we could have a meal together. We had ate a chicken salad. This is a common meal on that our menu selections ready when we sat down. diet plan. Christine should note he was doing good. U 6
Friday, 7TH X Bob had finished his breakfast cooking chores and othing like a full stomach to start the conversa- now eats. andra ate later after she finished working tions. ot many miss the breakfast. few tours of with the hot plates. the Island are planned today. B L I G planning session for our display was under way Our group starts a puzzle, actually one was finished for the ustis ally. Once again, ames has a plan and last night, and a new one starts today. Our table talk other suggestions are discussed. does not slow the work. C H P T Terry is checking out the availability of various t last, we line up and start the meal. Once again items needed to start cooking the Burnt Dogs and there are many items to place on the burnt dog or Hamburgers for our traditional Friday supper. How hamburger and different side items. did this become his job? Tom Davis and Bill mos have also cooked many Friday meals in years past. U There are enough sides to have a meal without a dog or a burger. 6
The Battle of the exes has started tonight. Bean There was a Peanut Gallery on hand to watch the Bag Baseball has not often been so hardly fought. action. For some reason, there was not a big group The men cheer on each throw; well, maybe not a working a puzzle or playing evens tonight. cheer, but typical baseball comments. aturday, 8TH The Breakfast Club had our new members, on & o nn Ferger, up early and joining in the table talk. oon we are eating in this brightly lite room. Terry is not dancing with o nn. If you look carefully at the lower right side of the The large square hole screen acts as a perching Humming Bird Feeder, you can see a Butterfly hav- place as a small bird arrives. They stick their head ing a snack of sugar water. That just goes to show through the hole and then jump to the pegs at the that no easy meal is rejected. There were not many feeding column. ot one bird had a bad landing on flowering flowers around this area. the short jump. The big birds were excluded. 4 U 6
X Glenn noted that this bird attempted to feed and When all was clear, he descended to the feeder was beat to the perch by other birds during a num- and Glenn had not seen the mother bird anywhere ber of tries. o he went to a tree perch to wait until waiting for their chance to eat undisturbed. While the others had eaten their fill. they eat, a bird awaits its turn. They are polite birds. B L I G s we slowly bring in the supper items, there is some discussions about the setup. The men are just waiting. Their discussions are not about food. C H P T There is plenty of elbow room as we scatter about the tables. Once again, there was more than enough to eat. fter the meal, we clean up the meeting room. emember the camp site is left better than found on U our arrival. ll the crumbs are swept up, the excess tables stored, and the extra chairs are stacked. ow the games can begin. o ends our camp out. The trees and sea breeze kept us cool. The rains left no puddles to walk around. 5 6
Continued from page Tom retired in and he and umiko moved to Gainesville, FL. He worked a bit as a half time adjunct faculty position in the Computer cience chool at the University of Florida before becoming distracted by Ving. umiko was born and grew up in Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, apan. he came to the United tates in the 97 s and became a naturalized U.. citizen on 4 ay, 979, in Pensacola, FL. he has two adult sons, Kenneth, who lives in Fort Walton Beach, and ichael, who lives with his wife, Lyndsi, in Tallahassee. s most members of ax ambling ams know, umiko is a very accomplished artist. Though she has not worked at it too much in recent years due to the Ving distraction, she was a very active member of artist guilds in both Fort Walton Beach and Gainesville. he is widely known for art show activities in both locations and has earned numerous awards for her paintings. Part of ax ambling ams folklore is the activity around a large mural she painted for a chapter project in connection with the Florida tate Good ams Fall amboree at the Wekiva Falls V esort near Orlando, Florida. Camping in general and ax ambling ams in particular have become a very large part of life for Tom and umiko. Both look forward to many more years of happy camping. embers Present: Bill & nn mos, Tom & umiko Davis, on & o nn Ferger, Bob humaker, Terry & Barbara Taylor, Brien & Brenda Vincent, ames & andra Walters, Bud & udy Wilhour, Glenn Yearous, and teve & Frankie Zubor. uly 6 Birthdays: nn mos 7/, Laverne Toivonen, Terry Taylor 7/8, uly 6 nniversaries: ammy & laine Benson, Tom & umiko Davis 7/6, oe & Glenda toneciper 7/7. Percent V s ttending Camp Out: 6%. Pot Pourri From the ditor Glenn believes that a new Tradition should be established for this Chapter. He would propose that public prayers, such as those in a restaurant, should be a silent prayer. The members would hold hands to form a prayer circle (if conditions permit). ach member holding a hand of the adjacent member, when the leader states Lets us pray, the silent prayer would start. s each person finishes the their silent time, just squeeze the adjacent members hand. If a squeeze has been felt from that adjacent member, the hand holding would stop. This method would allow a prayer (or no prayer) to be held in a crowded noisy restaurant without diminishing the individual prayer. The current roster may have a number of errors. Glenn has -mailed, to the members that receive an - mail copy of the newsletter, the current line in the roster for that member. number of responses have been received as this newsletter is printed. Those that receive a printed copy of the newsletter have been mailed a copy of their entry in the roster. This method is used because we have not had all of the members present at a camp out. By the ugust Birthday Party, enough responses should have been received so that a corrected roster can be printed. t that time, the traditional credit card size telephone list can be produced and distributed. Why do we have such a card? o any member can barrow someone s phone to call our members even if your memory is not perfect. 6 U 6
From ames & andra Walters The Wagon aster was appointed as chairman for the ustis Project. I will try to keep everyone up to date on our progress without revealing everything thru the newsletter. The theme is as you are probably aware is merica The Beautiful. One of the first chores will be to chose the music to be played and the length of time our display will run. The total time frame for our display will be determined by several factors.. I have Terry Taylor and Tom Davis on the committee with me, but I may call upon you for your opinion. I may also call upon you for some photos that you may have in your possession. I know that this is all very cryptic, but the newsletters go to a lot of places. We don t want to give away too many of our secrets. Our raffle item will be put together by our Gainesville members and will be a money bouquet. udy volunteered for her and Brenda to put it together for us. Coming up in uly is the camp out at Wilderness V Park in ilver prings, and hosted by am and Laverne. The ugust camp will be at Kelly s in Callahan and is always one of our important camp outs. We have a lot of good camps coming up, so please plan to make all of them. I am looking forward to seeing you there. The annual long trip for Oct 6 was selected by the members to be Charleston. From Wagon aster ames Walters I am currently reviewing the V parks in the area. lso under review at this time are the options available to us for tours and entertainment. I currently know that there are tours of the U Yorktown and also Fort umter. I understand that Ft. umter is a minute ferry ride both ways. I have seen a list of the top ten things to do in Charleston. I will review places to eat as well. I hope to have a list ready for the next newsletter. s always your input is appreciated, so if you know of something to do or something to avoid, please pass it along. ources can be given credit or held anonymously as you prefer. Let s work together and plan a great trip. We will have as main dish mothered teak, potatoes (or wild rice) and carrots. The members could add veggie, bread, desserts to complete the meal for aturday night. Please call me to let me know what you plan to bring. In case I might need to add other items. y correct phone number is 9--667. Thanks, Laverne HOT s OT FO ULY CP OUT X B L I G C H P T U 7 6
TH PIDT BOX U 6 The Chapter had an wesome camp-outing at ekyll Island this month. The ekyll Island V park has some very demanding requirements for rally s and thanks to Tom and umiko Davis we had a successful camping experience. s the Host of this camp-outing, they prepared enough grilled chicken for all our campers to have two or three servings along with securing camp sites for the rally. Tom and umiko invited on & o nn Ferger, to camp with our chapter at ekyll Island. They live in the Gainesville area with on being a retired electrical engineer. His early years were working at on the moon missions. He shared some interesting pictures and stories with our chapter after the aturday evening meal. The weather was a little sketchy with some very light rain that kept the temperatures cooler. any of our members visited the historic district, enjoyed dining, and used the bike trails on the island. Overall it was a very pleasant camp-outing. The Chapter had a general business meeting aturday morning after breakfast. The discussions centered around our schedules for a winter camp rally in October, and Good ams ally in ustis. For our October rally, Charleston C was the selected location. ames Walters is working on the logistics now. on and o nn were inducted and are members of X ambling ams Chapter. Welcome aboard! The ustis raffle is being headed up by Brien & Brenda Vincent and Bud & udy Wilhour this year. The ustis ally Theme is merica the Beautiful with ames Walters leading this effort. ames suggested a video slide presentation theme with music. Tom Davis added that this be merica the Beautiful as seen by our chapter members. This will be a presentation in a tent similar to last years Christmas theme. Please send ames Walters your digital pictures you would like to submit for this presentation (places you physically visited). We are limited to approximately 4 pictures. We need many more to help us cover the U coast to coast (Hawaii included). I appointed a committee for officer nominations for the 7 physical year. Tom Davis (Chair), Christine Yearous, and Frankie Zubor are your committee members. The new slate of officers with serve a two year term. The nominations committee will submit the names of those interested in any office. The election will take place during the ugust meeting with nominees voted on by the attending chapter members. The elected member will be installed during the December meeting at Kelly s V Park. Please consider helping our chapter stay current by submitting your name for an officer position. ore information will be provided about these events via e-mail and in our newsletter. FIT LDY COT: We had an amazing campout at ekyll Island. The food and mingling of friends were great. We played cards and umiko had her bean bag baseball game. Terry and I rode bikes, udy and Brenda enjoyed the beach, and umiko, Tom and others went touring the Island. We welcomed on and o nn Ferger to our Chapter. I would like to thank andra and everyone else for preparing breakfast. It takes everyone helping out to make our campout a success. Thank you Chapter! 8 U 6
The Wagon aster s Log for uly, 6 WLT X B L I G Good am defines a Caravan as being three or more rigs traveling together to a ally. ach state has it s own patch for a caravan. dditional caravans to that state earn a satellite patch to accompany the initial patch. Caravans to local camp outs do not qualify for a patch, but they make travel more fun and safer. The fact is, that you are not traveling alone in case of trouble. The longer the distance traveled, the more the need to caravan for safety. uly: arly bird uly 4 - Camp out uly 5-7 Wilderness V esort, ilver prings, Florida. am Lewis and Laverne Toivonen are hosting this camp out. arly bird uly 4 - Camp out uly 5-7 ug.: Our camp out is Kelly s Countryside in Callahan. This is our Chapter Birthday Party that is hosted by the chapter staff. arly bird ug. 8 - Camp out ug. 9-. ept.: Bill and nn mos are hosting our camp out at ennings Outdoor esort Campground. arly bird ept. 4 - Camp out ept. 5-7. Oct.: This year s nnual Long Trip to Charleston, C. ore information is on page 7. Camp out is Oct. - 6. ov.: Our Camp out will be at ustis, FL, the Florida Fall ally. Caravan trip - tarts at the Winn Dixie parking lot that is south of the bridge over Black Creek on U-7. Dec.: Our camp will be Kelly s Countryside. arly bird Dec. 5, Camp Dec. 6-8. C H P T U 9 6
6 6 6 uly 5-7 B 4 am Lewis & Laverne Toivonen 9-88-64 Wilderness V esort 5-65- ug. 9 - B 8 ax ambling ams taff 4 D Birthday Party Kelly s Countryside V Park 94-845-45 ept. 5-7 B 4 Bill & nn mos ennings Outdoor esort Campground 86-98- Oct. tarting on nnual Long Trip to ee Page 7. the TH Charleston C ov. 9 - B 8 TB Florida Fall ally outhern Palms V esort ustis, Florida DC. 6-8 B 5 Terry & Barbara Taylor Christmas Party Kelly s Countryside V Park 94-845-45 7 7 7 an. - B 7 ames & andra Walters 94-78-88 ennings Outdoor esort Campground 86-98- Feb. 5-9 TB Winter ally in Tallahassee B 4 arch 7-9 TB TB B 6 pril 4-6 TB TB B ay 9 - TB TB B 8 une 7-9 TB TB B 6 uly 5-7 TB TB B 4 ug. 9 - B 8 ax ambling ams taff 4 D Birthday Party Kelly s Countryside V Park 94-845-45 ept. 6-8 TB TB B 5 Oct. 4-6 B TB TB Florida Pre-Planned ally egular eeting Date ed type indicates a Caravan Trip is scheduled. Yellow background is a fun trip. This is not a Chapter eeting. B is an approved arly Bird Date B is an approved xtra B day. U 6