Thursday, October 18, 2012

October Rally

The following report was provided by Doug Tillmann.

OCTOBER HOOSIER CRUISER RALLY AT STEVE AND CASSIE LISLE’S FARM
This was the second "Lisle Farm Rally" gathering and we had eighteen coaches at this last Hoosier Cruiser Rally of the season.  After arriving throughout the day Thursday, the Hoosier Cruisers pretty much just sat around and yakked and enjoyed one another's company and the beautiful, sunny, crisp, fall weather until early evening when we caravanned into South Whitley for a nice dinner at the "Brown Stone Cafe".Friday morning there was a "Pitch In" breakfast in Steve Lisle’s meticulously clean garage/workshop.  This was another of those infamous Hoosier Cruiser "Bring-A-Dish-To-Pass" and make everyone fatter type of event where there is more food than the total number of attendees could possibly consume.
After breakfast there was a rousing game of "Family Feud" where the folks were divided into competing groups and were asked a series of goofy questions about pretty much everything.  There was a lot of hootin’ and hollerin’ and it was lots of fun.  As we were leaving the "Family Feud" event we were all surprised as we were "strafed" by two A-10 Thunder Bolt fighter aircraft as they went through some low altitude, high speed, acrobatic gyrations which made our teeth and the windows rattle. These awesome, thundering, airborne fighting machines, also known as the "Warthog" were, as we found out later, based at the Air Guard base in Ft. Wayne and the event was quietly orchestrated by Steve Lisle and his son-in-law.  The Warthogs, with GAU-8 Avenger gatling guns mounted in their noses, made us tremble and we were all glad that they were not angry at us and that they are on our side.
After lunch, we spent the afternoon playing Euchre and the dice game "Toss ‘em Up" in in the Community Center/Lisle Garage.  Dinner was another pitch-in along with  a big pot of brats which Barb and Jim Gibson had prepared.
After dinner we all donned warm clothes and blankets and listened to a roving minstrel as he strummed his guitar and sang to us as we sat around one of Steve Lisle’s itty-bitty, teeny-weeny campfires which had flames leaping fourteen feet into the pitch black, chilly fall night.  Ahhh, life is good !
After another pitch-in breakfast, Saturday morning found Jim & Bobbie Gibson laboring in the field setting up yard games. We all lined up and carried marshmallows across a course between two popsicle sticks and then pitched them into a bowl.  We all acted like teeny-boppers and had lots of fun.  Then some of the Cruisers engaged in a treasure hunt by elite teams named: "The Pudgy Pumpkins", "The Squishy Squashes", "The Wicked Witches", "The Scary Scare Crows", "The Groovy Ghosts" and "The Sassy Spiders".  No kidding !   That was the team names.  Unfortunately, it began to rain and the rest of the yard games that Jim & Bobbie had worked so hard to set up went unused.
After dinner we were treated to a sort of gift/door prize drawing. This one, like the one last year at the Lisle Rally, was different in that when your name was drawn you could select a gift from the table or you could "steal" one that a fellow Cruiser had previously drawn.  Betty Tilmann drew a nice, fuzzy blanket that was promptly "stolen" from poor Betty and  then came into Lois Stoner's possession .  Now, Betty was not happy about this but the picture of Lois cradling the blanket, cuddling it to her cheeks and sort of "bonding" with it was touching indeed.  Unfortunately for Lois, poor Miss Lois, her ecstasy was short lived.  The blanket went in and out of her control countless times and resulted in Lois finally losing it to Mae Stevens which did not make Lois a happy camper.  The blanket ultimately ended up with Mae which left Lois in a state of moderate to severe depression.  Congratulations to Mae and our very special sympathies go out to poor, sad, depressed Miss Lois for losing her treasured, soft, fuzzy blanket. Boo Hoo Hoo for Lois ! ! !
A great big  - ! Yeehah ! -  type thank you goes out to Steve and Cassie and Jim & Bobbie Gibson and Danny & Mary Lou Biddle for all of their efforts in staging another absolutely top drawer rally at the Lisle Farm !
It was a great rally and brought our 2012 season to a bitter-sweet end.


See you after the snow melts !

No comments: