It was nice to see so many members enjoying dinner and having a great time at River City.

The group enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Orange County Choppers Roadhouse (OCC). The menu items have names related to motorcycles like a knucklehead sandwich or a sportster sandwich. Some items have funny names as well. Sally ordered a chili dog called “the homewrecker” and you can see in the pictures what they served her. The entire table had a big laugh over the hot dog

For those that may not know the history of the OCC, the original location of OCC was in Montgomery, New York. Paul Teutul Sr. founded the company in 1999. Their custom motorcycle business led to a successful TV show called American Chopper with Paul’s two sons, Paul Jr. and Mikey. After several seasons, the show ended, and things fell apart due to a feud between the father and Paul Jr.

In 2020, OCC closed the New York location and moved to Pinellas Park, Florida, where they built a new facility called OCC Road House & Museum across from Bert’s Barracuda Harley Davidson shop. The Roadhouse has a collection of custom choppers built during the running of the TV show and is loaded with memorabilia and motorcycle artifacts. For example, some of the seats at the bar are motorcycle king and queen seat. Also, the sinks in the men’s room are made from motorcycle gas tanks (see in the pictures). All in all, a very interesting place to visit.

Twenty six members and 14 Corvettes took the trip to the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum. And what a treat that was! They have 90 very rare cars with some of them being the only ones built or in existence. For example, they built a full-size replica of the first self-propelled vehicle on steam power and ran it. For more information on that particular vehicle click on this link. https://www.tbauto.org/car-collection/1770-fardier-de-cugnot

Oliver Cerf, our terrific tour guide, is the son of Alain Cerf who began buying these cars and assembling them for the museum. The Cerf family is French and emigrated to the US settling in Florida. Oliver mentioned that he had come to the US in 1972. He really knows these cars and the engineering behind them. He said all the cars run and they take turns riding them.

Several members visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota yesterday. It’s a beautiful and magical place where you often feel you are lost in a tropical rain forest. Among all the trees, plants, and gardens, there is an amazing Banyan grove with several of these majestic trees. 

We had lunch at the Selby House which was built in the early 1920s. This Spanish-style home was Marie and William Selby’s original residence.

Congrats to Jim Dandy on the big win.

A group of members cruised to the List Distillery and Miller's Ale House in Ft Myers.

Our own Linda Kelly walked away with the Dynamic Detective Award beating out 100 other participants to the Broadway Palms Mystery - Murder on the 19th Hole. Other members in attendance were Kath Goodspeed, Linda Kelly, Ed Kerschke, Elaine McNeill, Jim and Mary Ortiz, and Bev and Bruce Olmstead.

What a great time and adventure we had at Bob’s train. Many members joined the fun today seeing rail cars once owned by John and Mabel Ringling and dining in a rail car restored to its finest. Four cars made up Bob’s Train. Hundreds, if not more, pictures and memorabilia lined the walls of the train. Bob himself provided information as to how he acquired the trains and a brief bit about his life, marrying into the circus family and his love for trains. Even our waitress was a relative of the Wallenda family. 

Eleven hardy members braved the heat to play 18 holes of intense mini golf at the Tropical Breeze Fun Park.

The game was ladies vs the men....and the ladies were the winners.

Several members scored holes in one, along with lots of laughter.

Dinner took place at the 10 Twenty five restaurant in Cape  Coral, I think we all enjoyed the air conditioned atmosphere.  Even the seats were cold.  Interesting as the waitress remembered us from our previous visit.

A number of members (mostly ladies…) had a great time with Mike Inbasciani  performing a fantastic Eric Clapton Tribute show.

Great day for our Sunday “Ride & Dine” to Solomon’s Castle in Ona. We had an enjoyable relaxing ride on our way through some nice roads in the Florida countryside. The Castle is quite an interesting place where everything inside and outside was constructed by the artist, Howard Solomon. 

A hardy group braved the wind to watch the sunset at Ponce de Leon Park in Punta Gorda.

Seventeen members enjoyed a wonderful Easter brunch at The Captain's Table.  Delicious foods were enjoyed including prime rib, leg of lamb, glazed ham, shrimp tortellini, chicken, salmon, oysters, along with an assortment of appetizers, side dishes, and desserts.  A feast for sure.

A number of PRCC members enjoyed dinner at the King’s Roadhouse yesterday and Patti ‘O, who is still visiting, also joined the group. The Roadhouse has some pretty nice choices on their menu. Afterwards, a few of us went to the Captain’s Creamery for ice cream.

What a great and beautiful day for the annual Florida Venice Corvettes car show at Centennial Park in Venice. 

PRCC had 7 entries today. They were Wally and Jerrie Schmalz (with Harry O ‘Gnome), John and Kathy Goodspeed, Steve and Rachel Schowdoski, Jerry Suminski, Bruce Olmsted, Bob and Helen Keyes and Sally and Diego Betancourt. 

Three members received trophies today. John and Kathy received a Participant’s Choice trophy for their beautiful C8. Bruce Olmsted received a judged trophy for his red ’61 (?) convertible and Bob and Helen received the BIG one!!  Overall Best of Show for their gorgeous blue ’66.

The club had a terrific time touring the Wicked Dolphin Distillery in Cape Coral on January 10th. We all got sample various rums and specialty drinks. After the tour we had a great meal at Duffy's Sports Grill.

A good time was had by all at our annual holiday party and gift exchange at the Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club.

Thurston Howell III and his wife Lovey from Gilligan’s Island (Ed and Elaine),  a Louisiana bayou voodoo priest and his angelic wife Kevin and Linda Riley), a crashed/banged-up race car driver with his attending nurse ( Preston and Nina Morgan), a sweet farmer gal (Dianne McGinnis), a giant peanut butter cup and his creepy companion (Jim and Mary - see her hat), a 25-cent gumball machine and her companion who also brought a bag of quarters (Rick and Wendy Rymberg), Hansel and Gretel (Diego and Sally), a lovely princess pumpkin (Miss Linda), a scary LED masked couple (Bruce and Bev Olmsted), and then there was a guy we usually see with a car show trophy, and no exception this time, he has lovely Helen by his side (the Keyes). 😊

That was some serious competition but Hansel and Gretel outlasted the others for the Best Costume prize: a GIANT 5lb. Hershey Chocolate bar!!

The other costume competitors received the table centerpieces.

Once again, many thanks to Jim Dandy, Mary Ortiz, Jerry Suminski, Ed Kerschke, Elaine McNeill and all the others who helped put together this fun event for PRCC.

Forty combined members of the Peace River Corvette Club and Venice Florida Corvettes were in attendance to enjoy lunch and friendship. We would have had more people but the restaurant capped our group reservation to 40 people. That just means the next time we are going to need a bigger venue!!! Every time our two clubs get together we have a great time and lots of fun.