May Rally - Vevay, IN - May 3rd

It may seem hard to believe, but spring is just around the corner. The Wessels and Rusters have planned an exciting weekend beginning Thursday, May 3rd. The rally is going to be held in Vevay, Indiana, a little town in southern Indiana. This year we will be camping at Follow the River Campground. The facilities are excellent and the club will have the use of a large meeting room that is heated. This will be a real plus since it is hard to predict what the weather will be like in May.

As the coaches arrive they will be parked on large cement pads that provide full hook-up. That evening members can elect to join others and have dinner at Mo’s Steakhouse. The campground meeting room will be available for those who want to share their experiences this winter or maybe play a few hands of cards.

Friday will begin with a pitch-in breakfast. The club has great cooks and it is a delight to share in the good food. After breakfast members can visit the Switzerland County Historical Museum and the Life on the Ohio Museum. All members will receive coupons for free admission to the museums. Members will be treated to a “haystack” dinner in the meeting room. If you haven’t had a “haystack” before it is a mouthwatering delight. After dinner Hoosier Cruisers will be able to enjoy the night life of Vevay. The town will provide live local entertainment and free carriage rides.

The next day starts with the “world famous donuts” prepared by Nancy Ruster. Last year they were a great hit. There is nothing like fresh donuts. The rest of the day will be spent in nearby Madison where members may take a tour of the power plant or take a behind the scenes tour of the Lanier home. For those who have visited Madison before, some may just enjoy shopping and touring the town of Madison.

 Returning to the campground late afternoon, plan to enjoy the Kentucky Derby and participate in a happy hour. To make this celebration even more fun, members are asked to wear their derby hat. The derby just wouldn’t be the derby without the over the top hats that are worn by derby goers. Dinner will include Kentucky fried chicken with members providing the side dishes. We will watch the Kentucky Derby on a big screen and root for our favorite horse. To continue the festivities we will have our own horse races in the clubhouse with winners receiving prizes.

On Sunday members can attend a church service at a church next to the campground.

We are looking forward to seeing all our friends who are certain to have many tales about their adventures this winter. Hope to see you all at the spring rally.

Hoosier Cruisers Winter Gather

It’s that time of year again and the weather here in Florida has been great. Sandy and I are looking forward to the Hoosier Cruisers winter gathering. For all you snowbirds and anyone traveling in the Florida area we will have a Hoosier Cruisers luncheon on Thursday February 16th from 11:00-3:00p.m. at Sun N’ Fun RV resort in Sarasota, Florida. Many of you will remember the wonderful luncheon served the last couple of years by the resort staff. You may also be interested in the new multimillion dollar lifestyle center constructed since last year. A video can be viewed on line at the Sun N’ Fun website. If any of you would like to come for a few days just call the office and ask for Elaine. Identify yourselves as Hoosier Cruisers and it may help. Feel free to contact me via e-mail or phone and I’ll do all I can to assist you. We will need a head count to make adequate arraignments so let me know as soon as you can if you can make it. We will also be sending an e-mail with this information as well. The following address and number are for the resort. Hope to see you all soon, Rick and Sandy Hahn.
Sun N’ Fun, 7125 Fruitville Road, Sarasota, Fl. 34240 . 800-843-2421
Take I-75 to exit 210 and head East for approximately one mile to entrance on left.

Sad News About One of Our Own

I received the following e-mail from Jane and Ernie Clashman.

We recieved a call from Sharion Matheny tonight. Russell (Bud) Myers passed away early this morning. 2:30 am.
Mary Belle is doing ok..

Bud will be at the Weaver and Randolph Funeral Home in Clayton, IN. 4712 Pennsylvania Street, 317-539-4567
Calling hours are Friday, Jan. 6th. 4 to 8 pm.

Funeral service will be Saturday Jan. 7th at 10:30 am.
As of 8:20pm Wed. Ernie and I could not find Bud listed with the Funeral Home. His name did come up, no other information. If we find out more we will let you know. Keep the family in your prayers. Jane and Ernie

Hoosier Cruisers Gather For Christmas Fellowship

For those that couldn’t travel to Anderson there was a Northern Christmas dinner held Saturday in Napanee and it was a great event. Those of you that attended the Bremen rally a year ago might remember a great meal at Mullets Amish restaurant. Well they did it again. After Denny Filson offered the blessing we all sat down. I was at the end of the table that the family style meal began and my eyes got big when a large bowl of homemade mashed potatoes was presented followed by chicken and noodles. The green beans followed and I was happy. As I started to take my first bite a platter of roast beef appeared. Wow I thought and helped myself. Just as I was about to partake again the most wonderful fried chicken was presented. Oh I’m so weak. Add to this the best just baked yeast rolls and five different pies and I guess you could say we were in dinning heaven. Our hosts the DeCausemakers and Schumakers planned an enjoyable afternoon with a unique gift exchange which had us all spinning around and wonderful entertainment of Holiday songs and sing along by our newest Hoosier Cruiser Dane Bailey, the Singing Auctioneer. We were pleased Dane and his wife Christina were able to attend their first function and hope to see them again very soon. We had over forty members at the dinner and thankfully they have room for more. Next year is already planned for December 8th and I suspect the attendance may go up. Merry Christmas and safe travels to all.

Celebrating Christmas

Hoosier Cruisers gathered at Ryan's Restaurant to share in the celebration of Christmas before leaving for warmer climates or storing their coach for the winter season.

As usual it was great fun visiting with friends and sharing stories of what had happened since the last rally that they attended.

Members proceeded to the buffet after Bettie Wessel blessed the meal.  Everyone found something that was to their liking.  The only problem the plates were too small.  You can see in the picture to the right that the club members had a great time.

What fun to see those Hoosier Cruisers that regularly attend rallies and those members who haven't recently attended one of the club events.

As members prepared to leave, everyone wished the members a Merry Christmas and Happy Travels.

Merry Christmas!

Membership Dues Reminder and Correction

Just a reminder that Hoosier Cruiser membership dues for 2012 are now due. A previously published (blog and newsletter) application/renewal form had an incorrect zip code for our secretary Beth Bailey. The attached form is correct and please use it to renew or apply. If you believe you have sent your form to the wrong address please contact Beth at bbailey915@aol.com and she will help you. Thanks and sorry for the confusion.

Get Well

Many of you know the Berriers. Bill was a past president and he and his wife Sandy have also served as rally masters.  They both have been challenged by some health challenges.  Their daughter wrote that Bill has had his retina re-attached, and Sandy has had a slight stroke and is suffering from heart problems.  Both are on the mends and the Hoosier Cruisers wish improved health.

More Pictures from the October Rally

Enjoy the pictures below which were submitted by Dennis Schumaker the official rally photographer.





Fantastic Fall Rally

Review prepared by Doug Tilmann:

The October rally was put on by Steve and Cassie Lisle, Jim and Barb Gibson and Danny and Mary Lou Biddle at Steve and Cassie Lisle's beautiful property north of Columbia City and it was a great fall experience -- absolutely loaded with activities. The weather was drop dead gorgeous, clear sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80's. We took a tour of Silgan Plastics in Ligonier, which is one of the largest manufacturers of plastic bottles in the world and it was a very interesting operation. Then we had lunch at the "Fashion Farm Restaurant" which is located on a farm that grows all sorts of stuff – pumpkins, squash, flowers, etc. and featured the "Pumpkin Fantasy Land", a creative Halloween maze display. After lunch, back at the Lisle farm, there was a Euchre tournament and a dice tournament followed by a sloppy joe dinner with all kinds of side dishes that the rallyers brought in.  MaryLou treated us to "Stone Soup" with a big rock in it. She took big rock about four inches in diameter, heated it up real hot and dropped it into the soup. The hot stone keeps the soup from getting cold. Cassie assured us that the big rock had been scrubbed, run through the dishwasher and had been properly sanitized. After dinner there was a huge campfire with a man strolling around the campfire circle strumming a guitar and singing all manner of songs to a large circle of Hoosier Cruisers.

Saturday morning we did one of those carry-in breakfast things where everyone brings way more than they could eat by themselves resulting in a really huge table full of way too much food and everyone, therefore, eats way too much food. The Lisle’s, our rally hosts, are very well organized folks. Steve's shop is all painted up and really neat and clean – really clean! ! Some folks think a man's shop should be messy. Actually, Steve and Cassie, both, are classic "neat freaks". For the rest of the day the Lisles had organized all manner of "stuff" including a sort of "games for everyone" thing. There was a bracelet making class, fishing pole casting into a big yellow ring contest, egg toss from one guy to another with raw eggs, carry an egg in a spoon and back without dropping it, pitching bean bags into a hole, etc.

Saturday evening we had catered dinner in one of the Lisle’s barn/buildings and afterwards they gave away tons of door prizes that were wrapped up in newspaper in what is sometimes called an "Ever Changing Gift Exchange". When your name was drawn you could go and pick one of the wrapped packages – no lifting or shaking — and then you brought it back to your seat where you had to unwrap it and sit it on your table for all to see. Now when the next guy’s name was drawn he had another option. He could do the same thing that you did and pick a wrapped package from the table or he could walk over to your table and confiscate the prize that you had previously chosen. A prize could only be "confiscated" two times after which it permanently resided with its last owner. This whole process was an absolute hoot. If you selected and unwrapped a particularly attractive prize – forget it ! You were destined to get ripped off. Louise, picked a big package and unwrapped this kinda neat folding lawn chair/chaise lounge type gadget and set it in front of her on the table. She looked at it, affectionately, stroked it and beamed with pride and joy. Well, naturally, it didn’t last long. The next gal whose name was called walked away from the prize table and zeroed in on Louise’s lounge chair like a laser beam. Louise sadly watched her prized chair leave for it's new home. Not surprisingly the new owner shortly fell victim to the same process and someone ripped off the lounge from her like she had done from Louise. A while later Louise’s husband, JR’s, name was drawn and just what do you think happened? With Louise energetically coaching JR, he walked straight away towards the most recent lounge chair owner and reclaimed Louise’s treasured chaise lounge. The rub was that this represented the third rip-off of the lounge so it was now immune to rip-off forevermore. Louise and her lounge could now live "happily ever after" – sort of like the princess and the ex- frog who was now a handsome prince. Folks got very involved in protecting their treasured prizes. There was large amounts of hootin’ and hollerin’ it was great fun to watch this whole process.

Sunday morning we were treated to fresh fried "Potato Doughnuts" engineered by Danny & Mary Lou, Jim & Barb, Steve & Cassie, and Doug who assisted in the very early cooking process. It was a dynamite rally and a great way to end the season.

The Mennonite Relief Sale Gathering

Many of you will remember the September rally last year held in the conjunction with the Mennonite relief sale in Goshen. Well, Doug and Betty Tilmann organized a non-rally repeat this year and I received the following report from Doug.
The Mennonite Relief Sale "Gathering" was well attended indeed. We had originally anticipated a half dozen or less units but we ended up with thirteen coaches. Steve and Betty LeCount brought three guests. It rained a lot Friday and Saturday but it didn't bother us because the organized activities were held indoors. They auctioned off a loaf of bread for $1,200. Yikes ! Betty Tilmann's unofficial count tallied the proceeds of the quilt auction at $93,735 from the sale of 233 quilts. It was a fun and interesting weekend. Doug