CCI TAMPA RALLY

by Janet Sanders

Photos: Jan Sanders, Skip Saunders

While snowstorms tracked across the north, some of us enjoyed warmer weather at the CCI Tampa Rally at LazyDays. 

The weather before and after the rally was great for sitting around outside so many of us took advantage to visit the area and the many friends and relatives that seem to have relocated to Florida, even if it is just for the winter. 

The weather during the rally was  a tad too cold at 50 degrees and 35 mile winds so we missed being able to party around outside visiting everyone. Still, it was way better than tornadoes and snowstorms up north!

    The rally schedule kept us busy with a variety of events, hosted by the Heartlanders.

 The main event was a white-table luncheon aboard the elegant cruise yacht Star Ship. We enjoyed a nice tour of Tampa bay.

We expected to see lush tropical homes on the bay, but had forgotten that it was also a busy port.

The afternoon was rounded out by a tour of historical Cuban neighborhood Ybor City just blocks away by a nice trolley ride.  Some of the old tobacco warehouses have found new life in shops and lofts, but you can still smell your way to where cigars are being hand rolled.

    We experienced a bit of old Florida with a trip inland to the old-fashioned Americana of Plant City. Inland Florida is farm and cattle land, with small towns and trains moving all that produce up North.

We ate at the Whistle Stop Café right next to the tracks. The café is in the old restored pharmacy that also housed the town doctor, up the stairs, in the early 1900s.  We shopped the antique stores, and walked over to the little train museum.

Strawberry Shortcake at Parksdale Market

   The Heartlanders kept us busy in the evenings with a movie night ( "Bridge of Spies", a great choice!) , a game night and a Night at the Races with fun gambling on horse race films.

  Why go back up North when you can hang around in warmer weather? Our SECCers are now heading to other areas of Florida. The Harpers are now down at John Prince County Park near West Palm Beach. Several of us headed over to Lakeland to Fountain RV to have work done.

Harpers at West Palm Beach

Post Rally Coaches at Fountain RV

Post Rally Tech Talk at Fountain

 Don't miss another rally. We hope to see you at our next SECC rallies in Orange Beach and Galax Virginia. Register now on our web site.

Mark Your Calendar!

Galax VA Rally

Gerry and Bonnie Keen are preparing a great rally May 18-22 at Cool Breeze Campground  Galax is home to the Rex Theater where bluegrass performances take place each weekend, and the New River Trail runs through town for the enjoyment of walkers and bikers. Also, the Blue Ridge Music Center is at the top of the ridge to the east.

A rally agenda is currently under development and will be announced soon.

Upcoming Rally Schedule

Oct 6-11 SECC/CCI  Kentucky Horse Park Rally. Hosts: Lee Zaborowski and Velma Williams

www.kyhorsepark.com

April 25-29 CCI  Meet Me in St. Louis Rally. The City of St. Peters Lakeside Park, 370 Lakeside Park. http://www.stpetersmo.net/lakeside-park.aspx 

Lee Zaborowski contacts Winnebago about their intentions for Country Coach and gets an answer.

Read the Article

Beautiful Buena Vista RV Resort

Orange Beach, Alabama

A Special Message from Ron Lee

A personal note to our friends,

        As we enter this holiday season here at Country Coach, we also enter a season of change. As most of you know, I have spent most of my adult life growing, nurturing and eventually rescuing the Country Coach brand that I love. I am very proud of what Country Coach came to represent, but I am even more proud of work the core group I assembled after purchasing the intellectual property of Country Coach has accomplished. From the start my goals were to resurrect Country Coach in the spirit in which it was created - to produce the finest motor coaches available, to bring economic vitality and growth to Junction City and to develop stable jobs for our employees.

        As you know, we have continued to work on the next generation of Country Coach product in the design and prototype stage and to transfer that work to reality of a product, actual production requires much more. To do that I needed to find the right resources to augment and grow what we have started. To that end, I have been working diligently for the past two years. Of the options I had to choose from I have made what I consider the very best choice for Country Coach for both service and production. I am pleased to announce that, effective today, I have sold the Country Coach Campus and intellectual property to Winnebago Industries. I have worked with Winnebago to ensure that Country Coach moves forward and work will begin in earnest to assemble the infrastructure that will lead to Country Coach production. Winnebago will also bring production of some of its current diesel motorhome offerings to Junction City. Please note that future Country Coach products will not be rebranded Winnebagos, but products specifically designed and built to the exacting performance, amenity and standard levels that have always defined Country Coach. Obviously this process will take time but everyone involved is committed to making Country Coach the premier motorcoach offering available.

        I made this decision because I believe that Winnebago is the best fit for Country Coach and that their, culture, dedication to design and build quality closely mirrors the standards I have set. This transition includes a change for me also as I will step down from the day to day operations. But rest assured, I intend to be the leading Country Coach brand enthusiast so you can expect to see and hear from Cookie and I from time to time as we travel around the country in our 2016 Country Coach Allure. 

           

        As I write this, I am recalling designing the first Country Camper Class A, I used a lower front from a Winnebago Class A to mock it up, we have come full circle.

Until the next time we meet!!

Ron Lee

Shipshewana CCI

We had a nice contingent of SECC members in attendance at the Shipshewana CCI rally including Richard and Deborah Benoit, Jack and Marylou Cassingham, Jack and Gerry Conway, George and Irene Harper, Bob and Carolyn Hendrickson, Joe and Lynn Mikan, Robert and Lois Nielsen, Michael and Mary Sage, Rick and Tammy Toalson, Reid and Dorothy Wentz, Myron and Dorcas Whitley, and Lee and Jeanne Zaborowski. We also are pleased to pick up two new prospective members, William and Rita Sax from Belleville, IL and Al and Billie Stewart from Midland (Columbus), GA.

Here are some pics from the SECC get-together hosted by Jack and Mary Lou Cassingham.

     
                     
                

                

Below is a group pic of rally attendees taken at the Cooks’ Bison Farm.  We ate lunch there –  including bison, of course – as well as taking a wagon ride to see the bison herd.  Notice the quilt pattern on the barn in the background, a common sight in this Amish area with its tradition of quilt-making.
                                                                                      


Everyone seemed to enjoy a wagon trip into the fields to see and feed the bison.  Some of the bison came up to the wagon with tongue out for a treat, supplied by the bison farm (3rd photo below).  The little fellow in the bottom photo is only one week old.

   

    









































Lee presides over a meeting.  He announced CCI’s new CCI Buck program designed to benefit members.  Members will earn 25 CCI Bucks credit for recruiting new members and for each rally attended.  Earned CCI Bucks can be used to pay dues or for CCI rally fees.  For all the details, see the CCI July Newsletter http://www.countrycoachclub.com/Resources/Documents/July%202015%20eNews.pdf

                              

Tammy and Lee keep the rally going.  The rally was well planned by the CCI Heartlanders chairmen who chose a number of interesting places in the area to visit, plus free time for shopping and sightseeing on your own.  In addition to the bison ranch tour, the rally included making pretzels at JoJo’s Pretzels, a tour of the Jayco Factory where Integra coaches are made, dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus, and independent tours of the Menno-Hof History Museum.

                             

We had a presentation by Master Tech RV out of Elkhart, IN.  They also served a spaghetti dinner.

                             

The “klop klop” of horse drawn buggies was an ever present sound. We enjoyed learning about the Amish, Menonites and Hutterites in the area.

       

                           

A dinner prepared by an Amish family in their home and a buggy ride from the campground to the dinner was a highlight of the rally.  The lady of the house, her husband, daughters, aunt, and niece all helped serve the dinner.  Also present was the niece's little daughter (in photo below).  The food was served family style and included fresh bread, salad, fried chicken, ham, beef, potatoes, noodles, green beans, and a variety of pies.  Nobody left hungry!







Arriving at the dinner:



Buggy ride back to the campground:

Jayco Factory Tour

If you associated Jayco with low end trailers, you were in for a surprise because Jayco makes the high end Integra coach. We toured their brand new manufacturing facility for the Integra line in nearby Middlebury, IN.

Lee examines the business end of a new Integra Spartan chassis.

Our factory representative starts the tour after radios are handed out.

Jack Cassingham feigns problems with his radio in order to garner the attention of an attractive young lady.





We saw various stages in the manufacture of the Integra.

Jack Conway raises a question about the "integrity" of the welds in the Intrgra roof truss.

The CCI Shipshewana rally included a great variety of activities, as seen above, and many opportunities to see the area, meet and spend time with other members.  In short, it was a great rally!

George Harper, Webmaster