February 2, 2014
Are you wondering where I’ve been, again? The answer –
traveling to the remaining Florida Temples, the Tampa Shriners Hospital, the
East/West Shrine Football game and we are now in Tucson, AZ. That was the short
version so now it’s time to tell you the long one.
We left Orlando on Saturday, January 11th for the
short drive to Melbourne, which is situated just south of Cape Canaveral on the
eastern coast of Florida. The ladies there held a really nice Ceremonial and
banquet. Our accommodations for the night were at the Azan Shrine Center, as
the lodge where Shilah Temple meets has a very small parking lot.
We left the
next morning for Aquarius Temple, Palm Beach Gardens/Lake Worth which actually
meets in Jupiter, FL. Again this was another Masonic Lodge building with a
small parking lot so we were welcomed at Amara Shrine Center for overnight
parking. One of the members of Aquarius Temple and her husband work for the
Good Sam Club and suggested that we chronicle part of the tour with pictures
and that they would do their best to have them published in the Good Sam
magazine. No problem!!! Marge Clericuzio took charge of this project and we
started having photo ops at our various locations.
January 14th - across the Everglades to an RV Park in North Fort Myers we drove. I never saw an alligator, either! The corner site which was assigned gave us optimum visibility which stimulated a lot of interest and questions by passersby. Surprisingly, many people DO know of the Shriners Hospitals for Children® and now even more know of the Daughters of the Nile and the Foundation! Marge Clericuzio made us all a delicious Italian dinner, complete with wine. Thanks Marge! The next day was the Official Visit at Tab’itha Temple, Daughters of the Nile where they initiated 6 new members after which, their dance unit performed at the banquet. OMG, they (the dancers) were funny!!
Off to Nyla Temple of Sarasota which meets in Bradenton at Sahib Shrine Center. Queen Marilyn Carlson arranged for media coverage and a speaking engagement for SQ Margaret Ann at the weekly Shrine lunch. My sources told me that at a normal lunch, 100-120 nobles are served, well this day, there were more than 180 attendees. It was great! Potentate Rocky and the Divan members treated us (all the ladies present) like royalty, they were awesome. I sat at a table with 7 gentlemen, all from different areas of the country who winter in the Bradenton/Sarasota area. SQ Margaret Ann dazzled them with her talk about the $1,000,000.00 one dollar at a time campaign and how the “Love for the Children Tour” came to be. I’m pretty sure I saw a few of the nobles wiping away a tear or two. Seven ladies became new Princesses at Nyla Temple that day. Nice! Our accommodations for the night were at the Manatee Encore RV Park…time to dump!!
The next few days are sort of a blur; the East/West Shrine Game at Tropicana Stadium in St Pete, Elim Temple Official Visit, a tour of the Tampa Shriners Hospital and Shrine International Headquarters.
The East/West Shrine game was awesome, well probably to
those who love football. I should clarify by saying that the experience was awesome for me. The
Shriner’s put on a huge tailgate party in the parking lot prior to the game.
Shriners, Daughters of the Nile, Shrine Clowns and LOS members gathered
together after that, walked out on the field and remained there until the starting
players of each team were introduced, the colors were posted and the National
Anthem was sung. WOW! The support, in the stands, for the Shriners Hospitals
was incredible!
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Monday morning, we were off to tour the hospital. Harold and I have been to this hospital before and at that time, found it to be very cold but this time was so different; maybe because the hospital was buzzing with activity; it was clinic day so many children were being treated in the various departments. Before the tour even began, SQ was greeted by two little ladies, dressed in their finest princess outfits and tiaras. How sweet they were. Within minutes several others joined us before being ushered into the auditorium for presentations. One very special patient was introduced who welcomed us and told her story. Her name is Leigh Ditts. She was diagnosed at 3 weeks with Brittle bone disease and has been a fixture at the Tampa Hospital these past 13 years. What an inspiration she is, not only to us but to many of the other younger patients. She loves to tell her story and express her love for the Shriners, Daughters of the Nile and the hospital staff!
After completion of the hospital tour, we took Nila (and her passengers) to Shrine International Headquarters. I think for most of us, we see it as just a building where the sitting Imperial Potentate has an office. Not at all! All aspects of Shrine International and its operations are housed in this building. There is a huge legal department, public relations department, membership, administration to name a few. All financial aspects of the Shrine Hospital System are executed out of this building. There is a museum on the first floor and many classrooms where seminars are held to assist the subordinate Shrine Temples to achieve their goals.
One of the employees, well actually the head of the Membership
Department Randy Rudge, is from Anah Shriners in Bangor. We caught up with
Randy, first at the East/West Game and then in his office where we had the
opportunity to spend a few minutes with him and snap a few pictures of the
three of us. Randy, if you are reading this, thank you so much for taking a few
minutes out of your hectic day for us; it was great seeing you and an Anah fez!
I’m going back in my personal history here for a minute; the
first trip that I made to Florida was in the late 1980’s and we stayed on the
Gulf Coast. Upon arriving in Tampa, our hosts drove directly to Coquina Beach
where the sun was just setting over the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the most
beautiful sites I had ever seen! I fell in the love with the beaches and the
area then and so enjoyed being back. (Thank you for indulging me while I took
this trip down memory lane).
We arrived in Tallahassee on January 21st, having
left Tampa just after the Shrine Headquarters tour and stopping part way and
spending the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot. You laugh, but most of the Wal-Mart’s
encourage travelers to use some of their space; the lots are well lit and with
security cameras everywhere; they’re really quite nice! At a matter of fact, we’ve
stayed at many along this trip. The plan in Tallahassee was to stay at an RV
park but since we found the accommodations at Marzuq Shrine Center to be
adequate, we hooked up to power and settled in. We had a great time at the
Ceremonial and Banquet of Tarsus Temple, Daughters of the Nile.
Next stop, January 23rd, Agapa Temple in Panama
City, FL and Shaddai Shrine Center, where again we were met with open arms by
the Shriners and Nile ladies. Cool weather, warm hearts! I’ve been told that
the most beautiful beach in the world is Panama City Beach; I’ll have to
revisit the area to confirm that, as I didn’t get close enough to see for
myself. UGH!!! What a tease, to be so close yet so far away! The ladies of
Agapa Temple performed a beautiful ceremony and fed us well at the banquet.
The
ride to our next stop of Pensacola was relaxing. Our GPS took us up the coastal
route, through many small towns. Shimron Temple, Daughters of the Nile usually
meets at Hadji Shrine Center and provided us with a lot at their onsite RV Park.
At last, a wide open space for Mollie to run and fetch sticks! Happy puppy!
Shimron’s ceremonial and banquet were held at a newly renovated Masonic Center;
the meal was provided by the members of Shimron in a buffet setting and was
wonderful!
These ladies know how to cook and put on a feast! The next day,
Saturday was an R&R day for us so Harold and I struck out to explore Pensacola
Beach and the surrounding area. I was here before; back in the 90’s and at that
time was so impressed with the confectioners’ sugar consistency of the sand. However,
it wasn’t a day to don a swimsuit and dip the toes in the water as seen by the
picture. BRRRRRRR! We also thought we’d take a ride around the AFB, home of the
Blue Angels, however because Harold wasn’t carrying an I.D. we couldn’t gain access
to the grounds.
That night we had tickets to and attended a Mardi Gras ball
which was being hosted by the Maids of Luna Krewe and being held at Hadji.
Okay, being from Maine, I had very little to no, knowledge of the Krewes so
when we entered the ballroom I was totally surprised. The room was decorated in
an outer space theme, complete with a space ship. All of the members of the
Krewe were dressed in costumes which coordinated with the theme. The “court” was
presented, introduced to us using their “outer space” names and escorted to the
stage. All other members of the Krewe sat on the sidelines congratulating the “court”
as they passed by. (A little weird but fun.) It’s my understanding that this
Krewe holds two meetings a year; one to plan the ball and the other is the
ball. It’s totally a social group. After all the introductions and photo ops
have taken place, then the music and dancing begins! Let the good times roll!! We
were invited to this ball by Queen Sylvia of Shimron, who is a member of the
Krewe. The evening was lots of fun as many of the Nile ladies attended to
support Queen Sylvia and what a treat to attend a function which was sponsored
by another organization/club and we could wear street length dresses instead of
formals. All in all, this time spent in Pensacola was wonderful!
On the road again! Sunday morning, January 26th
we hit the highway for Tucson, AZ. It’s a good thing that we “got outa Dodge”, since
the next day, a severe ice and snow storm hit the deep south and closed many of
the roads and bridges in the Florida panhandle and into Alabama. By then we
were safely in Lafayette, LA at another Wal-Mart. The trip from Pensacola to
Tucson covers about 1600 miles so we knew that if we averaged 300 or so miles
per day we could easily do the drive in 5 – 6 days. The second day we stopped
just east of San Antonio, TX at a Wal-Mart where experienced very cold temps
and freezing rain when we left there on the morning of the third day. Sleet and
freezing rain in Texas, with no sand or salt on the roads, not good, however
within a few hours of traveling, the temps hit the high 30’s relieving us of a
little anxiety. Now understand that this is the third day on the road and time
to dump, so when we reached Fort Stockton, TX we decided to stay at an RV Park
instead of a Wal-Mart. This park was really quite nice and obviously to me is a
great stop over for RV’ers traveling across Texas. We decided to have dinner in
the little restaurant adjacent to the office and what a surprise to find out
that the cook and her two children (the wait staff) are originally from Bar
Harbor, ME! The meal was excellent! Day four – we struck out fairly early as we
knew this would be a long day. We’ve traveled this road before, last December,
on our way from San Angelo to El Paso; besides mountains, scrub brush and dirt,
there’s not much to see. However, West Texas and the barren landscape has a
beauty all of its own. In looking ahead at the atlas, we realized that it may
be better stop for the night in Deming, NM and found another nice RV park. Day
five, Thursday – we reached our final destination of Voyager RV Resort in
Tucson. This is a really nice facility and geared to full time RVer’s and/or
winter snowbirds. If this resort were closer to Maine, then I might consider
returning. It hosts numerous activities every day from crafts/etc to exercise
to socials. Really nice…..
