Everglades City Cruise November 7,8 & 9, 2014
Bad Betty Barter brought it all back to Everglades City just as promised. This year’s Everglades City extravaganza was bigger than ever with a sell-out crowd of 60 members. The Motor Coach Lodge couldn’t serve any more of us! (Be sure to get your reservation in early for next year’s event, unless we can convince the lodge to go out and purchase more place settings!)
Our members showed up by boat and motor home. Originally, we had eight boats scheduled to cruise, but due to illness (Kruegers and Landwaards suffered Ebola like symptons!), we eventually got down to four boats: Putnams, Anzalones, Saunders and Kalksteins, and three motor homes: Dines, Mulligans and Sandlins. MANY others drove down and stayed in the Everglades Motel.
The weather was absolutely beautiful Friday and Saturday for the trip. A few members slid into the pool and hot tub prior to the party. The Friday night docktail party was attended by approximately 30 of our gang. As usual, we had way too much food, but somehow it seemed to dwindle down toward the evening. If awards were to be given out for most calories per bite, I am quite sure that Sigrid’s chocolate bars were the hands down winner! (A little prejudice here. I wasn’t sure at first, but by the third one I was convinced.
On Saturday, many of the gang went out for a local breakfast while the boaters pretty much ate aboard. The girls then gathered for a few rounds of Mahjong and Canasta while the guys drove to the Crab House to take in the Minnesota/Iowa football game…….and I have to brag that Minnesota won handily! Happy hour at the motor lodge began promptly at 4 and the place filled up quickly.
Dinner was served at 6 and then the fun began. This year’s very special treat was entertainment by Myles Loud, “The Real Marco Cat”. Myles played for three hours without a break and he had everyone up and jumping. His voice, both natural and in imitation is superb. His song selections, terrific. He interacted with the large crowd on a very one to one basis (just ask Larry, Gayle, Pat, Lucille and Sally) and got several to ham it up with the mike. Everyone was especially moved by his rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America”. The place was jumping right up to the final bell at 10 and even the house staff was commenting on how much they enjoyed the show. We hope to see more of Myles at future Club events.
A few of us walked back to the boats after the show. It was a beautiful evening with rolling clouds in a dark blue sky lit by a near full moon. The sound of the water quietly lapping on the sides of the boats was truly pleasant. Boating is such a wonderful experience.
Sunday morning brought the light rain that had been forecast, but we still had 30 members arrive for our Sunday brunch…..and what a brunch! Some of us nearly exploded, I swear. I saw Al Saunders sneak by the buffet table at LEAST twice pretending to just examine the leftovers. No one was fooled.
The Motor Lodge management very graciously told us all that we could stay another night free of charge if the weather inhibited us, but it was only light rain and the seas were quite calm. We all made it back after a quite pleasant ride. After all, we are boaters!
Hats off to Betty Barter for hosting this fourth annual gala event. I think that everyone would agree that it is certainly a major highlight of the year and we hope that it continues as a tradition. It was Ruth’s and my great pleasure to assist her with some of the details this season.
John & Ruth Putnam
