Tuesday (Sept 25) I set my sights further south in Florida toward a meeting I had set for Wednesday with the Mid-Florida Jeep Club in Deland (as in not da beach, but da land).
It worked out really well that my good friends John and Patrice Harnett live in the area and offered up their home for me to stay for a couple nights while I was there. I just want to make sure I send out a big shout of THANKS from me and BRC for letting me stay. Not only was it convenient, but you treated me like a king so thanks John and Patrice for letting me disrupt your lives for a couple nights.
The meeting with the Mid-Florida Jeep Club was great. I had the chance to talk with several of the folks that attended their weekly meet and greet. I also appreciated the opportunity to address the whole group from the back of the pickup during the after meal parking lot social.
The Mid-Florida Jeep Club is pretty amazing to me. For one thing, they have got to be one of the "meetingest" groups I have ever met. They honest to goodness have a meet and greet once a week. As I understand it, about half of their club is from the Daytona Beach area and the other half is from the Deland area, so they switch back and forth and have a get together each week in one or the other. Plus, they regularly fill up a whole room with about 30-40 people! Now that is club enthusiasm! They have regular rides, projects, and events on top of all that. All I can say is Wow! And just to prove I am not kidding here, check them out at http://www.midfloridajeepclub.com/.
That explains why their annual Jeep Beach event is so successful and growing every year. BlueRibbon Coalition is a huge beneficiary of this great event and I can't say how much we appreciate this organization's efforts. Everyone I have ever talked to about this says it is a blast. (Unfortunately, I keep sending Del Albright when I shoud go myself) You need to check this event out and put it on your calendar at http://www.jeepbeach.com/
While I was at the meeting with this group, they had a guy by the name of Greg Gimbert at the meeting to give them the lowdown on his efforts to open up Tiger Bay State Forest. The efforts on this are pretty impressive stuff, especially given the limitations on wheeling opportunity in the Sunshine State. BRC sent an alert and developed a letter generator to help them, you can read more here: http://www.sharetrails.org/alerts/2012/09/28/floridaopen-tiger-bay-state...
