Peach State Pioneer Campers Wagonmaster’s Page
4th Quarter – Oct – Dec 2009
ED GRUBA’S OUTGOINIG WAGON MASTER’S MESSAGE
Camp Harmony
Elberton, GA
11/13-15/09
Can you believe that two years have passed by already? This marks the end of my term as your Wagon Master. Starting in January, Jack Martin has graciously accepted the duties of Wagon Master for the next two years. Ginny, Karen, Russ, and Ellen have agreed to continue with their present duties for the next two years. I want to thank them for stepping up to the plate to keep the club functioning for another two years.
Here is what you missed if you did not attend the Elberton Campout:
After getting 5 ½ inches of rain on Tuesday, Wednesday turned out to be a nice day.
Libba and I arrived on Wednesday to cloudy but clearing skies. We were expecting to leave the house by 10AM, but our daughter’s basement was flooding from the Tuesday’s rain and I was called in to do damage control. We finally left at 12:30. A half hour down the road, Libba realized that she left her cell phone at home, so back home we go to retrieve the cell phone. Now we start the trip again at 1:30. We arrived at the campground at 3 PM. As I unhooked the car, Libba took pictures of the empty campground. We arrived at our site and started to set up when Libba could not find her camera. She ran up to the entrance of the campground and found her camera laying broken on the ground. Good start so far!
On Thursday, Al, the Biesters, Martins, Carters, and Peters arrived. Keith arrived before Russ and took Russ’ usual spot, so Russ had to find another site. (You snooze, you lose.) The site Russ chose happened to be a site that had no working power, so after some rearranging of the circuit breakers (don’t tell the campground), we were able to get power for Russ.
NEWS FLASH!!!!!
Keith and Ginny showed up with a new coach. They bought a Class C coach and I believe this was their maiden voyage. In their last outing with us, they had a 28-foot (?) pull behind trailer. Nothing wrong with that, but I guess the trailer didn’t quite do it for Keith. Of course, this meant that the group was in for some wine and cheese to celebrate the Carters’ new coach.
Karen e-mailed Libba, stating that they were packed and ready to leave when their coach would not start. They had a mobile mechanic scheduled to look at their coach Friday morning. The mechanic installed a new starter and Jim and Karen were able to join us on Friday afternoon.
Friday morning welcomed everyone with a power outage at 7AM. A squirrel shorted out a power transformer and blew the main pole breaker, and himself. The power company came out at 10AM and reset the breaker and everything was back to normal. The good thing about the power outage was that it gave me an opportunity (forced) to exercise my generator. I almost never run my generator, although they say you should on a monthly basis to keep the gas fresh and the generator head from rusting.
Friday night, we all went to the Red Minnow restaurant for a buffet style meal paid for by the club. Then, we went back to the clubhouse for desserts and games by the fireplace.
When we arrived back at the campground, we were greeted by Brooks and Yolande, who were victims of Atlanta’s famous Friday rush hour traffic, which I believe starts at 10AM and goes to about midnight. I feel badly that they missed dinner and I’m sure they were starving after what must have felt like a week on the road.
Saturday started out with a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and pancakes, prepared by the campout hosts Jack and Ginny, Ed and Libba, and paid for by the club.
After breakfast, we had the club meeting, where we elected the officers for the next term and set the campout schedule for next year. After the meeting, most of the women went to the craft show in Hartwell and spent a few hours browsing for things they can’t live without.
Saturday afternoon, Jake and Pat surprised us with a visit and to have supper with us. It was great to see them again and catch up on the latest news. Pat is looking real good; I hope she feels as good as she looks. Jake looks good, too, but the accident messed up his hip. so he has to walk with a cane. I hope we will be seeing more of them next camping season.
Saturday evening, we had our traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas supper hosted by the club, followed by the gift exchange. Libba did a good job of making the gift exchange into a fun event and I think everyone had a good time.
Sunday wrapped up what I thought was an exceptional outing. We had leftover ham, turkey and biscuits for breakfast. The weather turned out to be wonderful the whole time, we had the fireplace going non-stop in the clubhouse, and lots of quality time with a great bunch of folks.
I would like to thank Jack for assuming the Wagon Master duties;
Karen for continuing on as Secretary;
Ginny for continuing on as Treasurer;
Ellen for continuing to send out birthday and get well cards;
Russ for continuing to be Camping Coordinator;
Jim for all the hard work he put into designing the website;
And everyone that participated in our campouts these last two years despite me being the Wagon Master.
And, last, but certainly not least, let’s keep Lowell Smith in your prayers. Something is going on with him that is not sounding good. Let’s pray that it turns out to be nothing serious.
Ed Gruba
Wagon Master
JACK MARTIN’S INCOMING
WAGON MASTER’S MESSAGE
Camp Harmony
Elberton, GA
11/13-15/09
Hello All!
First I would like to thank Ed for his excellent leadership during the past two years. He did a great job making our campouts fun, educational (museum at Cartersville), and relaxing to attend.
This year, we have discussed having 4 rallies: April, Pine Mountain or Fair Harbor (Karen and Jim, hosts); June, Great Outdoors (Max and Helen, hosts); August, Adairsville (Ed and Libba, hosts); October, International, Lazy-Days, Seffner,
Fl; and November, Elberton or Gadsden (Russ and Ellen, hosts). We had a decent turnout last year and would like it to continue this year. We have a good time getting together talking, playing games and solving the world’s problems. Happy hours are always fun, and the more people we have, the better the event. These rallies are the only ones planned, but if anyone has a rally they would like to add, please contact Russ. The minimum a host has to do is pick the location, have some information about the area (places to visit, to eat, and have coffee and pastries for breakfast – paid for by the club).
Presently we have ten members who have paid their dues for 2010.
The club’s officers for the next term are:
Wagon Master-Jack Martin
Recording Secretary-Karen Mathis
Corresponding Secretary-Ellen Peters
Camping Coordinator-Russ Peters
Treasurer-Ginny Martin
Webmaster-Jim Mathis
Thanks to all for volunteering for these positions.
Your Wagon Master,
Jack Martin