Nature Coast Picnic

Another one of those ultra busy Saturdays! At 9:00AM we met Steve & Cheryl and Ed & Evelyn at the Wal-Mart on Osceola Parkway to head out to the "Nature Coast Corvairs" Picnic at Fort Cooper State Park near Inverness, Florida, some 80 miles away. We had seen many of the club members last week at Old Town during the GoVairs, Corvair Family Reunion. They invited up to join in with them. Originally there were to be 7 or so couples going up with us but the questionable weather kept them away. It was going to be one of those Saturday's where the rain would be all over, but not all of the time, or everywhere at once.

On the Turnpike headed North towards the event, the traffic was very heavy and running very fast. There was also a "Gators" game in Gainesville and the fans were speeding to get to the event. Our Corvair was running quite nicely, Steve has a "OPass" so he did not have to stop to pay the toll, we did, and as normal I chose the lane that had to have someone that needed extra assistance so it took a long time to get free of the gate. Steve slowed it down so that we might catch up to him before we exited onto I75. We had made up about 3 of the 5 miles that he had gained on us. The little Corvair really wanted to run so I let her go. That may not have been a good Idea, seems as though I don't have a 90MPH V-Belt on the engine. The Idiot Light for the Gen/Eng went on, so I put in the clutch, let the engine slow down, turned off the key and rolled to the side of the road. Linda called the lead car on the phone as I exited the car to check out the problem. A few minutes later the belt was replaced and we were back on the road.

We arrived at the event about 10:40AM, there were just a few members arriving to set up the event. The weather was off and on light rain, we were under a very nice shelter with electricity so it was just the trip from the parking lot that anyone would get wet.

Linda, Evelyn and Cheryl went exploring the area of the park near the shelter and reported that it had a great playground. The facilities were great for an event like this.

We met and chatted with the members present, as others were arriving. Herb Neumann had some great games set up, there was to be a contest after the meal and now was the time to practice. We learned that they were awarded the "Club Participation" Plaque and John Sax took home the "Deac Hundley" award from the Corvair Family Reunion last week. The turnout was lighter than they expected, so there was lots of food for all to eat. If anyone went away hungry it was their own fault.

Kathy Neumann, the treasurer, wanted me to meet Lee Eck to discuss some internet hosting possibilities, he had not arrived before Linda and I left for the trip to Old Town. (that is another story)

John Sax made sure to greet all of the "Guests", there were several more besides us. Looks as though they were also going to gain a few new members from Hernando and Gainesville.

It is just to bad that the weather caused the turnout to be lower than expected, this was a great event with GREAT PEOPLE, if our schedule allows, we will be at the next one!

Thank You to "Nature Coast Corvairs" and their members for a nice time.

Oh, no one there had a 90MPH belt for me....

Here are a few photos.