Pledge & Prayer: President Paul
Song: Bill McLaughlin (America the Beautiful)
Brents Card Game Winner: Brent
Sergeants Report: Rick Beck
Raffle Winners: Carroll, Keith, Mike
Happy Bucks: Marty for a great 4 days of golf at Myrtle Beach, Ken Roche for being back from Fla, Bill McLaughlin for returning from his trip, Brent for the club working hard on the golf tournament, Jason back from vacation, Paul for an improvement in todays attendance (over 20)
Announcements:
- Foundation Board meeting after the regular meeting, re: budget
- DARE Graduation is May 14 at 5:30PM at the Middle School auditoreum. Paul will be there and would like others to attend as well.
- Brent: Golf tournament: We don't need to make a minimum 100 golfers however is there are less, they won't close the course and we pay a little more per golfer. Prizes this year will be gift cards redeemable at 3 stores. We have to get more items to fill the ditty bags and raffle prizes are needed. Next week, the team captains will be meeting. We need to make sure we solicit contributors covered by departed club members. Paul is donating back a set of clubs he won last year. Stan will take care of the coffee and donuts again this year - thank you Stan! There will be no putting contest to allow more time in the barn for the open bar. Please let Marty know if you can work at the tournament.
Program: Bill McLaughlin
Each year for the past 5 years or so notice the absence of Bill McLaughlin from club meetings and activities. Thats because, during the winter months, Bill and his wife Rosemary pack up their RV and travel cross country to visit with their daughters and some extended family. Bill and Rosemary left in the first week of December and no, they didn't go to Wisconsin. The RV had no mechanical problems though with the price of diesel fuel and a 10mpg thirst, it wasn't cheap! The RV has over a 100 gallon capacity and at $4.60/gal you can do the math on a 10,000 mile trip. The first leg was the Carolinas and Myrtle Beach area where they visited their friends, the Gordons. Bob Gordon passed away shortly after the visit and Bill was glad he had one last visit with his old friend. From there, they traveled to Texas, Waco and Santa Fe area. This was a dangerous area in the 1870's when the Comanche Indians roamed. Bill talked about the history of the southwest and how the west was won visiting some historic areas. Bill and Rosemary kept heading west to Fort Stockton, a historical place. Not much there today and is very hot and arrid. They went on to Deming, New Mexico where they encountered a near blizzard with high winds that posed some driving challenges. Onto Carlsbad in southern CA to visit their daughter. They spent 6 weeks there. Southern CA is very hilly so cell service is sporadic. They stayed in Yuma for a few days - a pleasant place with lots of farmland and crops. They saw the red socks of Sedona, went to Flagstaff, Santa Fe, and Los Alomos negotiating a very narrow highway with steep dropoffs. A bit of anxiety when driving an RV. Bill later found an alternate route that would have been much easier (and safer) later on. Bill and Rosemary then traveled to Denver to visit Rosemary's cousins for a couple of weeks. From there, it was onto Illinois and a long, rough ride back to New England.
The trip took 5 months and 10,000 miles were covered.
md
THE FOUR-WAY TEST
of the things we think, say or do
First...
Is it the TRUTH ?
Second....
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Third....
Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Fourth....
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
